


REPRESENTATIVE ENGLISH PROSE 
AND PROSE WRITERS. 



REPRESENTATIVE 



ENGLISH P RO S E 



PROSE WRITERS 



BY 



/ 



THEODORE W. HUNT, Ph.D. 

Professor of Rhetoric and English La7tgiict.ge in the College of New Jersey 
Author of "The Principles of Written Discourse," etc. 




H 

NEW YORK 

A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 

714 Broadway 
1887. 






Copyright, 1887, 
Bv A. C. Armstrong & Son. 



PREFACE. 



The present volume is offered as a contribution to the 
study of Enghsh Prose in its representative Eidorical 
Periods, in its representative Liierary Forms and in some 
of its Bepresentative Authors. That portion of our prose 
is especially discussed that dates its beginning from the 
reign of Elizabeth in the writings of Bacon and Hooker 
and extends to the present decade in the pages of Cariyle. 
This is English Prose Proper. As we advance, careful 
attention will be given to the discussion of English Prose 
Style as visibly expressed in a few of our prominent prose 
writers. The work will be literary, throughout, in its 
method, subject matter, and purpose, as distinct from 
that order of treatment that might be termed technical 
or speculative. A detailed account of the life and times 
of the separate authors examined will thus be aside from 
our main design, such allusions being made only in so 
far as they serve to cast light on the particular author's 
work as an author. 

We have aimed to make the discussion both philosophic 
and practical, in a department of our literature as yet but 
approximately covered. 

We trust that the treatise is so presented in thought 
and external form, that, while serving a special educational 
purpose in our coUege class-rooms, it may also prove 
stimulating and helpful to every' ingenuous student of 
Enghsh Letters. T. W. H. 

College of New Jekset. 

Princeton. N J.. Feb. 1887. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 
CHAPTER I. 

English Pbose fkom Bede to the CHEONictLE .... 15 

CHAPTER II. 
English Pkose fkom the Chkonicle to Bacon .... 25 



PART I. 

KEPRESENTATIVE HISTORICAL PERIODS. 

Classification of Periods 43 

CHAPTER I. 

THE FORMATIVE PERIOD. 

A — Causes or Agencies 49 

Friendly Agencies 49 

1. Antecedent Work 49 

2. Awakening of English Literaiy History . . 50 

3. Attitude of Royalty 51 

4. English Versions of Scripture 52 

Adverse Agencies 54 

1. Grammatical Structure 54 

2. Rise of Euphuism 55 

3. Revival of Classical Languages ..... 56 



1^' TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

B. — Chaeactekistics 59 

1. Increasing Grammatical Regularity 59 

2. Increasing Vocabulary 60 

3. English Spirit 60 

4. Versatility 61 

5. Human or Catholic Spirit 62 

6. Protestant and Ethical Spirit . 63 

CHAPTER XL 
THE TRANSITION PERIOD. 

Transitions 67 

Appeopkiateness of the teem to this Epoch .... 69 

A. — Chaeacteeistics 71 

1. Franco-English 71 

2. Inferiority of Diction 73 

B. — HEiiPFuij Agencies 75 

1. Popular Agitation 75 

2. Personal Character and Work 77 

CHAPTER ITT. 

THE PERIOD OE SETTLEMENT. 

The tbeivi AuausTAN 80 

Appeopeiateness op the woed, Settled 87 , 

A Peeiod op Peose 88 

A. — Chaeicteeistics 90 

1. Periodical 90 

2. Popular 92 

B. — Adveese Agencies 94 

Rise of French Criticism 94 

C. — FEiENDiiY Agencies . 95 

Philological Study of English 95 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION AND EXPRESSION. 

Ths Modben Peeiod Peopee 99 

Pkevadence op Pbose in this Age 100 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. V 

The wokds, Expansive and Expbessive 101 

A. — Special Charactseistics 103 

^, 1. English 103 

2. Literary 104 

8. Natural 105 

B. — Helpfue Agencies 107 

1. Influence of Germany 107 

2. Political Agitation 110 

3. Eevival of Eirst-Englisli 115 

General Inferences 116 

1. Comparative Limits of Periods 116 

2. Comparative Amounts of Prose and Poetry . . . 116 

3. Unity of Periods 117 

4. Progressive Development 118 

5. The Period and the Writer 119 



PART 11. 

REPEESENTATIYE LITERARY FORMS. 

LiTEEARY Forms 125 

The word, Forms 125 

Methods of Classification 126 

CHAPTER I. 

HISTORICAL OR NARRATIVE PROSE. 

Contents 128 

Biography 129 

Remarks . . • 130 

History Proper 133 

Its Meaning 133 

A. — Cha.racteristics op Historic Prose 134 

1. Accuracy of Statement 134 

2. Clearness of Statement 134 

3. Unity and Order 135 



vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4. Delineation 136 

5. Simplicity 137 

6. Gravity 137 

B. — ^Methods 138 

1. The Chronological 138 

2. The Logical . . . . , 138 

Suggestions 139 

C EI AFTER II. 

DESCRIPTIVE OE POETIC PROSE. 

The woed, Desceiptive 143 

Benefit of Desceiptive Peose to Style 144 

The Mental Element in this Foebi 145 

Peovince of Desceiptine Peose 146 

Poetical Peose 146 

Peose Fiction 148 

The Phrase Prose Fiction 148 

Classes of Peose Fiction • 151 

1. The Historical Novel 151 

2. The Descriptive Novel 152 

3. The Ethical Novel 153 

4. The Eomantic Novel 155 

Rank and Value op Peose Fiction 158 

Geneeal Chaeacteeistics of Desceiptive Peose . . . 159 

1. The Imaginative Element . . ' 159 

2. Pictorial Diction 160 

3. Comprehensiveness and Minuteness 160 

CHAPTER III. 

ORATORICAL OR IMPASSIONED PEOSE. 

The woeds, Oeatoeical and Oeal 162 

A. — Chaeacteeistics . . , 162 

1. Emotional 162 

2. Objective 163 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vli 

3. Free. 165 

4. Interesting and Stimulating 165 

Notes 166 

B.— Divisions 167 

1. Forensic Prose 167 

2. Judicial 168 

3. Sacred . . . . ; 169 

CHAPTEFt lY, 
PHILOSOPHICAL OE DIDACTIC PEOSE. 

A. — Chaeactebisttcs 174 

1. Unimpassioned 174 

2. Thorough 174 

3. Sedate and Dignified 176 

4. Adaptive 177 

5. Prose Distinctively 177 

B. — Contents ". 178 

Notes 181 

CHAPTER A^ 
MISCELLANEOUS PEOSE. 

A. — General Characteristics 183 

1. Variety of Topic 184 

2. Brevity 185 

3. Unity of Benefit 186 

4. Increasing Literary and Moral Character .... 188 

5. English in Origin 190 

6. Human and Natural 191 

B. — ^Divisions 192 

1. Essays 192 

2. Letters . . . . 194 

3. Travels and Tales 195 

4. Journalism 197 

Ikfebences 198 



viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

1. The Relation of Prose Forms to Prose Periods . . 198 

2. Relative Value of Forms 200 

3. Form and Idea 201 



PART III. 

REPRESENTATIVE PROSE WRITERS 
AND THEIR STYLES. 

A. — Classification of I'jkoss Authoks 205 

33. — Expii.AJSATOEY Statemsnts 207 

Plan of Discussion 209 

CHAPTER I. 

THE PROSE STYLE OF FRANCIS BACON. 

BioGE.APHicAii Sketch 211 

His Use of Latin 211 

His Pbose Wobss in English 214 

Leading Qualities of his Style 217 

Excellencefi 217 

1. Condensation and Compactness 217 

2. Analytical Clearness and Suggestion . ... 219 

3. Incisiveness 220 

4. Strength and Force 222 

5. Imagination and Illustration 224 

6. Versatility and Variety 223 

Main FaulU or Defects 227 

1. Want of a pnre English Diction 227 

2. Want of Development of Idea 229 

3. Want of Literary Finish 230 

CHAPTER IT. 

THE PROSE STYLE OF RICHARD HOOKER. 

BlOGBAPHICAL SkETOH 231 

HiiJ Pkose Authoeship 231 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 

The Timeliness of his Peose Pboduction 232 

ChaIcACTEBISTIOS Oj? his S'llfLE 2 J! 

Merits 23'i: 

1. Philosophic Weight and Vigor 234 

2. Logical Soqaence 237 

Leading Faults 239 

Diction and Structure 239 

CHAPTER III. 

THE PROSE STYLE OE JOHN MILTON. 

Biogeaphicaij Sketch 246 

Milton as a Pboss Weitsb 2if> 

His Peose Wobss in E^aLisH 2i,J 

Chief Defects of his style . 251 

1. Anglo-Latin Diction and Consbriiction . . . . 2'3l 

2. Faulty Imagery 253 

3. Personal Allusion 255 

Liteeaey Meeits •. . 25J 

1. Ingenuousness 25 '3 

2. Directness of Purpose 257 

3. Impassioned Energy 251) 

CHAPTER TV. 

THE PROSE STYLE OE JONATHAN SWIFT. 

Biogeaphical Sketch 265 

His Peose Wbitings 2(35 

Chaeacteeistigs of his Style 2r)3 

Faults . 269 

1. Absence of Literary Elegance . . . . . . 270 

2. Inferior Order of Imagination 271 

Merits of Style 272 

1. Force and Spirit 272 

2. Satirical Power 271 

3- Individuality and ludependence 276 

4. Good Use of English 278 

5. Freedom from Pedantry 285 



X TABLE OF CONTR?TTS. 

CHz^PTER V. 

THE PEOSB STYLE OF JOSEPH ADDISON. 

blogkaphical sketch 288 

His Pbose Works 288 

HJLS Pkefsrbnoe foe Phose 290 

His Pbosb Style 291 

Special Features of his Style 291 

1. Lifcerary Gentleness and Grace 291 

2. Plainness and Precision 294 

3. Wit and Humor 298 

4. Versatility 302 

5. Ethical Character 304 

Addison's Critical Ability 305 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE PPtOSE STYLE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

BioGRAPHiGAji Sketch 310 

His Prose Writings 310 

ExAi^nNATioN of HIS Style • . 311 

Defects 311 

1. Anglo-Latin Element 311 

2. Want of Flexibility 317 

3. Absence of Impassioned Energy ..... 321 
Merits of Us Style 323 

1. Substantial Clearness 323 

2. Literary Gravity . . . , 325 

3. Johnsonianism 328 

His Work as Lexicographer and Critic . . . . . .331 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE PROSE STYLE OF EDMUND BURKE. 

Biographical Sketch 334 

View as to his Rank 334 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi 

His Prose Writings 336 

His Prose Style, Conditions 339 

Characteristics of his Style 342 

1. Forensic and Impassioned . 342 

2. Dignified and Manly 348 

3. Practical and Timely 352 

4. Satirical and Figurative 355 

5. Lack of Literary I'inish 358 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PEOSE STYLE OF CHARLES LAJMB. 

Biographical Sketch 363 

His Prose Writings 363 

Defects of his Style 364 

1. Diction and Structure 364 

2. Absence of Logical Development 365 

3. Want of Permanent Literary Effect 368 

Merits of Style 369 

1. English Character and Spirit 369 

2. Humorous Element 371 

3. Naturalness and Flexibility 375 

4. Sympathetic Tenderness 378 

5. Critical Element 380 

Defects of his Style as CRincAL 384 

1. Want of Lnpartiality 384 

2. Want of Comprehensiveness 384 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PROSE STYLE OF THOMAS 
BABINGTON MACAULAY. 

Biographical Sketch 387 

His Prose Works 387 

Popular Estimate of His Prose Sttlb 388 



xii TABLE OF CONTENTS, 

Ai^AiiTsis OF HIS Style 390 

1. Skill in Narrative and Descriptive Writing . . .390 

2. Excellence of Sentence Structure 398 

3. Literary Personality 405 

Chiep Defects 408 

1. Want of Intellectual Depth and Yigor , . . . 408 

2. Want of Etliical Earnestness and Aim .... 413 
Pbesent and PnosPECTr^E Eank of his Style .... 414 

CHAPTER X. 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

BlOGEAPHICAL SkETCH 417 

Miscellaneous Chaeacter of his Works 417 

Merits of Style » . . . . 419 

1. Variety and Flexibility 419 

2. The English Element 420 

3. Intellectual Character , . . . 423 

4. Impassioned Vigor 429 

5. Humor and Satire 433 

6. Pictorial and Artistic Power 435 

Alleged Defects 437 

1. The Want of Full Discussion of Ideas . . . .437 

2. Errors of Diction, Sentence, and Moral Force . . 440 

CHAPTER XL 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF CHARLES DICKENS. 

BTOGRA.PHICAL SkETCH 444 

Prose Fiction as a Form 444 

His Prose Vv orks 446 

Prominent Features of his Prose Style 449 

Merits 449 

1. Delineative and Dramatic Power 449 

2. Pathos . 454 



INTRODUCTION. 



CHAPTER I. 

ENGLISH PEOSE FEOM BEDE TO 
THE CHEONICLE. 

The exact historical period covered by this division of 
our earlier prose as distinct from poetry may be said 
to extend from 673 a.d. — the year of the birth of Bede 
— to 1154 A. D. — the year of the close of The Chronicle. 
Within these limits, the four prominent centres of 
prose writing were Yarrow, York, Winchester and 
Abingdon. The four prominent prose writers were 
Bede, Alfred and the Aelfrics, representing, respec- 
tively, the geographical centres mentioned. The 
earliest specimens of First- English Prose were, un- 
doubtedly, the collections of the Laws in the seventh 
century, by Ethelbert, Hlothere' and Eadric, Kings 
of Kent; by Ine, King of Wessex, in the same 
century; by later writers, also, such as Ecgbert of 
York, and so on to Alfred the Great who in his care- 
fully compiled codes laid the basis of a wise Christian 
legislation at the very opening of our literature. 
Connecting his code with that of Moses and with the 
broader one of Christ and the apostles he adds — 
*' Those wliich I met either of Ine's day my kinsman, 
or Aethelbert's who first received baptism among 
the English race, that seemed to me rightest, I have 
here gathered and rejected the others." Then follows, 



IQ ENGLISH PROSE. 

The Chronicle, compiled, partly,, by Alfred, and 
partly, by Plegimund and other less known annal- 
ists. This collection, unimportant as it is in itselt 
or in its literary character, is invaluable in its histori- 
cal and civil bearings. Beginning long before the 
Conquest, it runs nearly a century beyond it and thus 
serves to cherish the First-English spirit and lan- 
guage. As the earliest history of any Teutonic 
people in a Teutonic language, and with the Laws 
the earliest form of English Prose, it has an interest 
and value quite aside from its contents. Alfred did 
for it what Chaucer did for English Poetry. He 
made it national, so that from his time to the death 
of Stephen it was the people's authority. Above all, it 
was English clear and clean and lies back of all later 
English as a basis and guide. As far, therefore, as 
mere time is concerned, there are nearly five centu- 
ries included in this earliest prose era, a pei-iod fully 
as long as that from The Chronicle to Bacon's Essays, 
and longer by far than that from Bacon to Carlyle. 
In noting more specifically the English Prose of this 
period, there is, first, the unfinished translation of 
St. John's Gospel by Bede. There is, also, Alfred's 
translation of Orosius, a kind of manual of general 
history. Alfred's translation of Boethius' De Consol- 
atione Philosophiae is especially memorable. In . 
this, the classical and the English spirit, the specula- 
tive and the practical, are happily combined, while 
Christian sentiments are always enforced as superior 
to those of a pagan philosophy. It is by way of 
eminence that one of Alfred's productions in which 
his great and generous English heart reveals itself 
most fully. \Ye know of no work of Pre-Eeformation 
times in which there is found a purer ethical teach- 



BEDE TO THE CHRONfCLE, 17 

ing, a more conciliatory spirit or a cleaner prose 
style. Then follows his translation of Bede's Eccle- 
siastical History of Eiigland, a work which Alfred 
selected, partly, to give to the people the benefit of 
its contents and, partly, because of its intensely 
English character behind and below its foreign dress. 
He, also, translated Gregory's Pastoral Care — a kind 
of Homiletical hand-book for Churchmen. Most ot 
it reads as an affectionate pastoral letter. It is full 
of interest from the fact that Gregory, its author, was 
the one who sent the first missionaries from Eome 
to Kent; also, because Augustine, who headed this 
movement, brought the original work with him to 
England, and because in it he speaks sorrowfully of 
that olden time when piety and English learning 
flourished together, and yet hopefully, in that better 
days seemed to be dawning. Such was the noble 
work of Alfred as our first great prose writer. If it 
be said that his work was mainly that of the compiler, 
translator and paraphrast rather than that of a crea- 
tive author, it is to be answered, that the original 
additions that he made, especially, to Orosius and 
Boethius, were so numerous and valuable that he 
may be said to have combined the work of an inde- 
pendent author with that of a commentator. As to 
his style, it has all the best qualities that mark the 
First-English character, — plainness, directness, spirit, 
ethical gravity and manliness. In these particulars 
he may be compared with English writers of any sub- 
sequent epoch. Nor must it be forgotten that no 
modern translator of Latin into English has had any- 
thing like the difHculties of structure and style before 
him that Alfred had when he aimed to render a 
compact classical tongue into the more flexible En- 



18 ENGLISH PROSE. 

glish of his time. From the pen of Aelfricthe Gram- 
marian we have, The Homilies, The Colloquy, Lives 
of Saints, a partial translation of Old Testament Scrip- 
tures, with a number of manuals and less important 
works. Equally clear in his prose with Alfred and 
even more poetic and finished, he had to a less 
degree that masculine vigor that marked the king. 
Most of his prose is so alliterative as to mar its char- 
acter and, yet, what he lacks in solidity he supplies 
in a more modern, lucid and facile expression. A 
later and less renowned Aelfric — Aelfric Bata — en- 
larged The Colloquy of his superior. 
V As far, therefore, as the prose authors themselves 
are concerned, they are seen to be but few in number, 
not exceeding a half dozen at the most. It might 
lead to serious error, however, should it be supposed 
that the smallness of the number marked the real 
character and results of the work accomplished in 
this province. Nor must the principle be too strongly 
j)ressed that in this first era, if matters be reduced to 
their last analysis, we have but little of native, 
genuine English. It is perfectly true that Bede 
wrote nearly all that he wrote in Latin ; that Alcuin 
the pupil of Bede and the teacher of Charlemagne, 
re-edited the old classic authors, and in his Com- 
mentaries, Capitularies and ethical treatises, used the 
language of the Church of Rome. It is also true that 
each of the Aelfrics was in a sense an Anglo-Latin 
author and that Alfred was the only writer of First- 
English Prose who can with full truthfulness be said 
to have given us an example of prose in " English 
Undefiled." This is all correct, and yet we are to bear 
in mind that beneath the letter is the spirit and be- 
hind the text is the man; so that of such an author as 



BEDE TO THE CHRONICLE, 19 

Bede, Morley maj^ justly say — "He leads the line of 
English Prose Writers," — and Mr. Brooke may state 
of Aelfric the Grammarian, " that he wrote a sim- 
ple, literary English." The indebtedness of Modern- 
English Prose to the English Prose of this first era, 
in so far as actual subject-matter is concerned, is not 
large, nor could it naturally be expected to be. It is, 
nevertheless, a real indebtedness, and to overlook it 
as some ultra modern writers have done, is as untrue 
to literary history as it is to the genius of the English 
people. Such an epoch is not to be measured simply 
by what it has left in the form of visible prose pro- 
duct, but also by what it made possible for succeeding 
ages to accomplish and to accomplish more easily. 
The study of our first prose is, indeed, now a matter 
of etymological rather than of purely literary benefit. 
Still, in and through such philological work the 
modern English student is continually noting traces 
and glimpses of literary value, and is all the better 
prepared by such study for the full appreciation of 
those later prose eras which have thus been heralded 
and hastened. Among the four or five prose authors 
already mentioned as illustrating in their writings 
more or less of the English element, King Alfred, as 
has been stated, is the only one whose prose is out- 
and-out English. He is thus, not only the founder of 
English Prose historically viewed, but the one First- 
English Prose Writer with whom above all others 
the modern English student should be thoroughly 
conversant. 

Intensely English in spirit and mission, all that he 
said and wrote was in his birth-tongue, and he lived 
mainly to found and foster a home literature. Zeal- 
ous as he was in the line of literary service and 



20 ENGLISH PROSE. 

political reform, his chief love was in the sphere of 
the home speech. "There are only a few," he says, 
*'on this side of the Humber who can understand the 
divine service or even translate a Latin letter into 
English; and I believe not many on the other side 
of the Humber. There are so few, indeed, that I 
cannot remember one south of the Thames when I 
began to reign." This was his constant lament, and 
it was the ruling passion of his life to redeem the 
land from such disgrace. To this end, he encouraged 
English scholars, founded English scliools, wrote edu- 
cational treatises, traveled from place to place, and 
organized the literary work of the country. It is to 
be emphasized, here, that what he wrote, he wrote 
in tlie form of prose as best adapted to the needs of 
the hour, and his prose was always mature, thought- 
ful and substantial. As Milton after him, he had no 
liking for frivolities. He wrote as he lived — for the 
weal of the people. It may safely be questioned 
wiiether from the ninth century to the present time 
there has been any prose writer of English who has 
better understood his age than Alfred did his, or one 
who has done more for his age in the line of literary 
advance than did Alfred for his. Hence in any 
historical and literary study of Modern-English Prose 
we are compelled to go back to the writings and 
spirit of Alfred as a necessary introduction. The 
meaning of his name — one skilled in council — will 
express the character of liis mission 

If we inquire as to the Characteristics of First- 
English Prose, they may be stated as — Brevity, Sin- 
cerity, Directness, Vigor and Ethical Earnestness. 
What they said and penned they expressed in sen- 
tences short, frank, pointed, forceful and serious. 



BEDE TO THE CHRONICLE. 21 

Thoy called things by their right names; said just 
wliat they meant, nothing less, nothing more, nothing 
different; spoke "right on" as "plain, blunt men," 
in terse, pithy and homely Englisli, with no other 
purpose than to be understood and felt. Just here 
is seen the great difference between our first prose and 
first poetry. The verse abounds in abrupt inversion, 
in paraphrase, excessive apposition, restatement and 
circuitous forms. In fact, these are its main "marks 
and make it at times so difficult as to defy a clear 
rendering. There is, perhaps, no language in which 
there is such a wide difference as to structure and 
consequent difficulty between the prose and the 
verse, as in First-English. This difference, fortun- 
ately, is all in favor of the prose. It is probable 
that there is no period of Modern-English Prose in 
v^hich there is so little waste of words in the expres- 
sion of thought as in this earliest one. Little is to 
be said, however, as to grace or finish of structure in 
the prose. It was as devoid of that quality, as it was 
of moral looseness. With the exception, however, 
of grace and descriptive ease, we find in the prose all 
the higher elements of a good literary product. In 
an age so wide-mouthed as the present, when fluency 
and ideas are so often in the inverse ratio, something 
is still to be learned, perchance, of this olden time, 
when men spoke and wrote for a purpose and were 
sparing of their words. 

As to the morcil quality of the prose, it should not 
be forgotten that in addition to the homilies. Chris- 
tian biographies, commentaries and religious treatises 
of the time, each of the prominent prose writers — 
Bede, Alfred and Aelfric — translated larger or smaller 
portions of the Scriptures into the common speech of 



22 ENGLISH PROSE. 

the people. Morley, in his " Illustrations of English 
Religion," has very naturally dwelt iipon such strik- 
ing facts as these, and despite the cynical allusions of 
Mr. Taine and the liberal school, they can scarcely be 
ignored. 

Before leaving this opening era, it is of interest to 
inquire as to the agencies which were at work for 
and against the development of a native English 
Prose. 

As to those which were adverse, there were two of 
special prominence. One is found in the prevalence 
and bitterness of civil strife somewhat deepened by 
foreign wars. It is a matter of no small surprise 
that any degree of literary life could have been main- 
tained in such an era and that Alfred could have 
done much of his best work in prose with the sword 
in one hand and the pen in the other. As the Jews 
in the days of Nehemiah, they must perforce, build 
and battle at the same time. Such a condition of 
things is a practical explanation of the moral sobri- 
ety of the prose, and a full explanation of its frag- 
mentary^ character, its comparatively small amount, 
and the narrow range of subjects it includes. Literary 
art needed a more congenial soil in" which to take 
root and produce the best fruitage. The temple of 
letters as that of Jehovah at Jerusalem must be built 
in times of peace. A further adverse agency is 
visible in the prevalence of the Latin as the vernacu- 
lar of the island after the establishment of Rome's 
civil and ecclesiastical power. It is not tlie purpose, 
here, to arraign the Latin at the English bar to 
answer for this, or to diminish in one iota that large 
measure of benefit which has accrued to England 
and the English tongue from this kindred speech. 



BEDE TO THE CHRONICLE. 23 

It is \x\ point, however, to state that by reason of this 
Eornan and Romish supremacy it was a much more 
difficult matter for the native language to make any 
headway or the native authors to found a native 
literature. The very word which meant, Latin — 
/ede?2^-also meant language, as if the two things were 
identical. So potent was this influence that as has 
been seen, Bede and others yielded to it. Aelfric and 
others compromised on the interlinear method, and 
Alfred alone resisted and overcame it. Even this 
was somewhat due to the fact that he lived in the 
ninth century, when the Roman influence had dimin- 
ished or was superseded by Danish and other less 
potent and pervasive agents. Anglo-Latin was the 
prevailing language; and had it not been for the un- 
conquerable English spirit of these writers, their 
translations of Scripture into the folk-speech, the 
work of Alfred and of the compilers of The Chronicle, 
— the name of First-English as applied to this period 
would indeed be a misnomer. In asking for a state- 
ment of those agencies which were friendly to the 
ftn'roation of a home prose, attention must first be 
called to this innate and indomitable English spirit 
which demanded the preference of the native lan- 
guage to all foreign rivals; to the wise and loyal 
polic}^ of Alfred as a king, an author and a man; to 
the early opposition of the native Church to the order 
and doctrine of the Romish ; to the preparation of 
the Biblical and secular manuals in the vernacular; 
and, most of all, to those marked providential agen- 
cies at work separating this western home more and 
more distinctly from the traditions and teachings of 
eastern and continental Europe. Even so cautious 
and critical an author as Ten Brinck, in closing his 



24 ENGLISH PROSE. 

snrvey of this period writes — "The English Lan- 
guage had by that time reached a high degree of cul- 
ture and aptitude for the purposes of prose writing.'* 
The spirit and drift of the age was after all Teutonic 
rather than South European. Hence the remark of 
Mgrley relative to the Anglo-Latin element — "They 
are English studies, English aspirations that we fol- 
low through the Latin Literature. The accident that 
use is made of a continental language leaves the 
native character unchanged." Even the Danish 
hordes that infested the land were pure Teutons, and 
it was not till the incoming of the Norman-French 
that this Teutonic impulse received any substantial 
check. First-English Prose, fragmentary and com- 
posite as it is, is after all, more English than it is 
anything else. In its spirit altogether English and 
so, to a good degree, in its letter and texture, it forms 
the opening chapter in that grand historic series 
which takes a new departure in the days of Elizabeth, 
and is even now in manifest expression before us. 
Bacon and Addison, Johnson and De Quincey would 
not have been what they are in English literary prose 
had it not been for these men of vigor who centuries 
before them did their pioneer and preparatory work. 
*' Thus even before the Norman Conquest there ap- 
peared phenomena in England," writes one, " presag- 
ing the Middle Age of English," — presaging, we may 
add, the Modern Age of English Speech and Letters. 
Such is the law of historical sequence as applied in 
the domain of language and literature. 



CHAPTER IL 

ENGLISH PROSE FROM THE CHRONICLE 
TO BACON. 

The chronological limits of this period extend from 
the close of The Chronicle (1154), on through the 
death of Chancer (1400) to the full opening of the 
Modern English Period, in 1561 — the birth of Bacon. 
This period, it will be seen, is not as long by a 
century as that which preceded; and, yet, it rep- 
resents, especially at the close of it, a list of authors 
and an amount of English prose product altogether 
superior to anything that had preceded it and quit© 
indispensable in its preparative relation to what was 
to follow. The general literary character of this 
period, both as to prose and poetry, is a matter of 
history. Discouraging as it is in sotne of its epochs 
and phases, it is interesting to note that niore atten- 
tion is now given to this intervening period than at 
any previous epoch. German, English, and American 
scholars alike, represented by such men as ^laetzner, 
Ten Brinck and Brother Azarias are vjnng with 
each other in seeking the full explanation of that 
long literary decline which then prevailed, and also, 
in bringing into prominence any elements of promise 
that then lay concealed or but partially revealed. 
There is a true sense in which the difficulty of as- 



26 ENGLISH PROSE, 

certaiiiiiig the real character of such eras marks the 
measure of their importance to the historical and 
literary student. The Norman Conquest of 1066, 
preceded by repeated Danish invasions, had done its 
transforming work, introducing a new system of civ- 
ilization, a new language, in part, and a new spirit. 
To the older life of the times of Bede and x41fred these 
must altogether yield, or on the basis of compromise 
be adapted and adjusted. In the nature of things and 
by the providential course of events, there was a kind 
of union of systems, each retaining cardinal charac- 
teristics of its own. The result was, The Middle- 
EngHsh Prose. In speaking of the agencies at work 
in the First-English Period against the development 
of a native English Prose, we mentioned Foreign 
Influence and Civil Strife. It is suggestive to note 
that these, in somewhat diiferent form and measure, 
are the obstacles at work in the Middle Period. In 
the early portion of the era — from its opening to 
Chaucer — the great opposing influence was the 
Norman- French. (Beginning early in the eleventh 
century and culminating in the year 1066, its influ- 
ence is distinctly marked as far on as to the middle 
of the fourteenth century. The chief result as far as 
structure is concerned, was the change of English 
from an inflected to an uninflected language, and as 
to vocabulary, the introduction of a large number of 
foreign words. However true the theory may be, 
that this phonetic decay of English would have taken 
place in obedience to an inevitable tendency of lan- 
guage to simplify, it must, still, be conceded that 
such decay was greatly hastened by Norman influ- 
ence. The result was that First-English gave place 
somewhat violently to another form of English, call 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON. 27 

it what we may. From this time on, it was all the 
more difficult for native writers to express their 
thoughts in native forms, or when so expressed, to 
have them accepted. > As in the earlier era, Anglo- 
Latin was the prevailing tongue, as used by Bede, so 
now, Anglo-Norman, as it is called, was the liter- 
ary language with the old Latin influence largely re- 
maining. In fact, Norman-French and Latin now 
combined to make the cultivation of the home litera- 
ture almost impossible. Hence it is that modern lit- 
erary historians in commenting on this period, cor- 
rectly speak of English writers in Latin and French. 
They wrote either in Latin or in French or in both 
combined — in anything but pure English. Such 
prose writers were those who wrote immediately at 
the opening of the Middle Period, when the foreign 
influences were the strongest, and who disappear as 
we near the days of Caxton. Such were William of 
Malmesbury, Ealph Higden, Geoffrey of Monmouth, 
Kichard De Bury and Roger Bacon, They were in 
no honest sense writers of English, and cannot claim 
from the student of English Prose more than a pas- 
sing notice. In chronicles, historical romance, and 
philosophy, they undoubtedly quickened the intellect- 
ual and literary life of the time, but did little or noth- 
ing directly for the English as a language. So domi- 
nant was this foreign influence for a century and a 
half after the Conquest, that these Latin and French 
authors on English soil had the field to themselves. 
There was no such thing just then as a substantial 
body of vernacular prose. It is to this very period 
that Ten Brinck refers as he says, — "The English Lan- 
guage could not maintain itself in the foreground of 
literature against the two-fold competition of the 



28 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Latin, which more than ever held the ear of scholars, 
and of the Anglo-Norman, which was the idiom of 
power and of fashion. It withdrew more and more 
into obscurity, as if to gather strength for better times." 
Such a work as, The Ancren Riwle, by Bishop Poor, 
written first in Middle-English and then in Latin, 
was based on a kind of compromise between the two 
languages. Never in the history of the English 
people has there been a period when the home speech 
was so completely in abeyance, and foreign forms so 
potent. It was not till the second half of the four- 
teenth century that this was changed and English 
began to assert itself with some prospect of success. 
Though this was signally true in poetry, it was true 
to some extent, also, in prose. In the latter part of 
this era, or from the death of Chaucer on, we meet 
a new obstacle in English Prose, in the Civil Wars 
of The Roses, more deadly, if possible, than the bitter 
feuds of the Octarchy. No sooner had the literature 
taken on a national as opposed to a provincial form, 
than these prolonged conflicts made it tend back again 
to dialects and local usage. As we stand at the tomb 
of Chaucer and cast the eye along the following cen- 
tury, we are prepared to appreciate the comparison 
which Warton makes between those times of promise 
and the beauty of a premature spring. The latter is 
no more surely followed by a short return of wintry 
winds than was the former by a period of literary 
coldness and death. This is especially true of the 
fifteenth century, of which it is truthfully remarked 
by Morle}^ " that it has not bred for us a single writer 
of the foremost rank." This is true, though it is pos- 
sible to number no less than half a hundred versifiers 
and not a few prose writers as properly belonging to 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON, 29 

this period. Of the last fifty years, beginning at the 
time of Henry VIII, better things can be said. As 
far back as Caxton, a new movement was partly vis- 
ible as hastened and matured by the introduction of 
printing into England and by the liberal policy of 
the king toward men of letters. Not only is there 
now a new intellectual life abroad, and English 
Poetry under Italian influence is rising to newness 
of life, but in the special department of English Prose 
there is a deep and wide revival of interest. A good 
number of names may be cited here as working de- 
cidedly in this domain, while it has been suggestively 
remarked by not a few critics that the prose of these 
years will very favorably compare with that which 
foll9wed in the age of Hooker. 

This upward movement calls attention to what may 
be termed the friendly agencies at work on behalf of 
a native prose. Mention might be made here of the 
loss of Normandy in 1204, by which the Dukes of 
Normandy were no longer Kings of England, and the 
political separations of the two countries was substan- 
tially completed. The English victories in the Civil 
Wars tended, also, to the same beneficent result. 
Macaulay's prophecy, that if France had gained in 
these struggles, England would have become her de- 
pendency, was not a wild prophecy and was nulli- 
fied by England's success. If we add to these, the 
friendly offices of the government toward native En- 
glish writers, we have a partial explanation, at least, 
of the new awakening in prose letters. 

The two agencies of special note, however, remain 
to be stated. 

The first was, The Introduction of Printing into 
England, hy Caxton and his colleagues. In Cologne, 



30 ENGLISH PROSE. 

in 1471, Caxton published the first book ever printed 
m the Enghsh Language, and in 1474, the first En- 
glish book ever printed in England. Each of these 
was translated from the French, and it was in 
the province of translation and revision that he 
put forth most of his energy. As most great 
workers, he little understood the meaning of the 
instrument he had in hand and its best uses. In- 
stead of publishing the accepted authors of former 
times, and thereby giving examples of the best styles, 
most of the issues of his press were in the department 
of romance. We rejoice in what Caxton did. We 
deplore what he failed to do in the line of the more 
stable adjustment of a classic English Prose. The 
second specially helpful agency was the immediate 
result of printing itself — The Publication of the 
Christian Scriptures in the vernacular. In addition 
to some partial versions of the First-English time by 
Aldhelm, Egbert, Bede, Alfred and Aelfric, and in 
addition to the later versions of Shoreham, Hampole, 
and Wyclif, it is interesting to note that between 
Caxton and King James we find no less than four or 
five Bible versions — Tyndale's, Coverdale's, Roger's, 
Cranmer's. This work of Bible translation was a 
literary as well as a religious work. It was invalu- 
able at the time in giving widespread currency to 
the English tongue, in establishing secular literature 
on a moral basis, and in opening the way for the En- 
glish Reformation. Both as to the matter of printing 
and that of Scriptural versions, it is not to be forgotten 
that while they belong alike to prose and poetry, it 
was in the sphere of prose, especially, that they found 
their best expression and uses. 

If we inquire as to the writers of English Prose, in 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON. 31 

this Middle Period, there are tliren distinct lists of 
names that engage us. 

(a) The first is found in that part of the period that 
embraces the latter half of the fourteenth century 
(1350-1400), and includes four names of greater 
or lesser prominence — Chaucer, Mandeville," Wyclif^ 
and Trevisa. From Chaucer we have in English 
Prose — The Parson's Tale and the Tale of Meliboeus in 
the Canterbury Tales; his Translation of Boethius; 
The Testament of Love; and the Astrolabe, in which 
last he says what wall apply to all his writings — 
'* By this treatise I will show thee naked words in 
English." In the first of these writings we find what 
might pass for a sermon on Jer. vi. 16, wherein the 
Pilgrim's Progress of Bunyan is anticipated in the 
poet's most serious vein. In the second, the same 
strain of serious allegory is continued in dialogue 
between Meliboeus and his wife, Prudence, wherein 
it is taught that life should be under the control of 
the moral law. In the Boethius, the same work 
which Alfred did nearly five centuries before, is taken 
up again and the union of the First and the Middle 
Period happily effected in the sphere of ethical prose. 
It is thus reserved for Chaucer not only to preserve 
the moral continuity of English Letters, but to sub- 
stitute for the Consolation of Philosophy the higher 
consolations of religion. It is not a little peculiar 
here, as Morley suggests, that although the original 
Boethius has poetry as well as prose, and although 
Alfred has handed down to us his Metres, — the later 
English translator is so intent upon the prose of this 
didactic treatise, that he studiously omits the render- 
ing of the verse. 

In the Testament of Love, supposed by some not 



32. ENGLISH PROSE. 

to be genuine, there is a most interesting passage of 
The Prologue insisting on the wider use of the 
native language — " Lette than clerkes enditen in 
Latin and lette Frenchmen in their Frenche also 
enditen their queinte termes, for it is kyndely 
(natural) to their mouthes, and let us show our fan- 
tasies in soche wordes as we lerneden of our dame's 
tonge." Tiiis has the true ring about it, and marks 
the man who spoke it as loyal above all to the speech 
of his fathers. The writer pleads in this work for 
the presence and solace of the Love of God in the time 
of trial — the trial in his own case being supposed to 
refer to his imprisonment in 1388. Of the Astrolabe 
suffice it to say, that it is written for the benefit of 
his son Lewis, and a few years before the author's 
death. In it he takes frequent occasion to praise the 
use of the native English, and while encouraging his 
son in the study of Astronomy makes ever and anon 
suggestive hints on education and morals. 

From the pen of Mandeville we have " The Travels," 
— an account of his more than thirty years* sojourn 
in the East, making a sort of guide-book for those 
who might be inclined to journey over the same 
ground. Dedicated to Edward IIL, the date of its 
publication was 1356. Translated from Latin into 
the French and then into English, it became as an, 
English treatise widely popular. It had just enough 
of facts in it to please the historian, and just enough 
of miracle and Eastern legend to frame a romance 
for the curious reader. It served to continue in En- 
glish romantic prose what Geoffrey ot Monmouth and 
his Anglo-Norman colleagues had begun earlier in 
the era, and to prepare the way for that special kind 
of prose in later periods which is marked by the 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON. 33 

adventurous spirit. Of Wydif and his work, it is 
scarcely necessary to speak. 

His English version of the Scriptures was com 
pleted in 1380 — the fii'st complete Bible translation 
into English. Though not printed until centuries 
later, it was for a century and a half the Bible of 
England, and, what concerns us here especially, was 
the standard English Prose of the time. It is simply 
impossible to estimate the immediate and continuous 
effect of this version upon the English mind and the 
English speech. With over ninety per cent of native 
words in it, and being distinctively the people's book, 
it entered into the secular life and common speech of 
the time as an essential element. It did for that age 
what Tyndale's version did for his; and though a 
treatise purely Biblical, takes its place in the history 
of English Prose as an example of secular literature. 
The Bible was inspired, but its diction was Wyclifa 
and it was English to the core. 

There remains a single name in this first list, — that 
of Trevisa, who did good work in converting *Latia 
books into English, and his best work in giving an 
English rendering of Higden's Polychronicon (1387), 
— a kind of universal history bearing especially on 
that of England. If we compare Trevisa, the English 
Translator, with Higden, the Anglo-Latin original, 
we can get a very just idea of the difference between 
iVA Englishman writing in Latin and an Englishman 
writing in his mother tongue. Trevisa as contrasted 
with Higden reveals to us the progress that was 
slowly under way from the foreign to tlie native 
language. 

(bj The second list of writers of Middle-English 
Prose, also, numbers four, and brings us into the six- 



34 ENGLISH PROSE, ^ 

teenth century (1400-1500). They are Pecock, Fortes- 
cue, Caxton, and Malory. Of the first of these authors, 
it is known that he was a man of high degree in the 
Church, able in theological controversy, arguing in 
English Treatises against the Lollards, and produc- 
ing at length, his most famous work, — The Kepres- 
sor of Over Much Blaming of The Clergy. As to its 
purpose, it is enough to state, that it was a vindica- 
tion of the clergy against those charges made by the 
" Bible Men," and others, in justification of pilgrimages 
and similar practices. We have to do with it simply 
as a specimen of Middle-English Prose, and in that 
particular it deserves an emphatic mention as we pass 
along. Mixed as his English was, it was English, and 
much purer than his doctrine which trimmed too 
closely between reason and faith. 

Fortesciie introduces us into an entirely new depart- 
ment of prose — that of political and constitutional 
law. A man of high descent, of large legal learning, 
of official rank as a jurist and strongly inclined to 
democratic views in government, his main English 
treatise is — The Difference between Absolute and 
Limited Monarchy. The object is the same that he 
had in view in his Latin work on, The Praises of the 
Laws of England; namely, to show the superiority of 
a modified form of liberal government to that which 
is extremely restrictive or absolute. The spirit is 
the spirit of Alfred of old, and he writes as a man 
who was looking forward more than two centuries 
when English liberties were to be fully established at 
the revolution of 1688, under William. Of William 
Caxton enough has already been said to show how 
in the line of translating foreign books into English, 
and as an original writer and printer, he furthered the 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON. 35 

good work already begun and probably did more 
than any secular author of his time on behalf of En. 
glish Prose, secular and Scriptural. Of the last of 
this list, Malory, little is known ; but that little is 
valuable. Enough is known to state that in speech 
and writings he separated himself from all those who 
still dallied with the courtly French, and entered 
heartily into the English movement. His book — 
The Byrth, Life, and Actes of King Arthur — is full of 
Christian spirit, and though dealing with the times 
of the great British hero, is marked by a true English 
zest and phrase. The extreme eulogiums pronounced 
upon it by critics serve to show that it has a right- 
ful place among the best examples of Middle-English 
Prose* and serves as another link to connect that 
history with all that follows. 

Among the literary prose productions of this cen- 
tury, " The Paston Letters,'' deserve honorable mention 
not only by reason of their intrinsic merit, but of their 
peculiar relation at the time, to the history of our 
prose, and of the important light which they throw 
on many matters otherwise obscure. These letters 
appear to have been written in the reigns of Henry 

VI. and Edward IV., even on to the time of Henry 

VII. Composed by the members of a highly respect- 
able though not an aristocratic family, they interpret 
as nothing else could have done the English life of 
the times. There is in such letters" an informal and 
ingenuous expression of opinion quite foreign to the 
more critical and elaborate treatise. The private 
correspondence of Racine and Boileau, of Goethe and 
Schiller, and of Addison and his contemporaries, 
reveals to us far more of the character of the respec- 
tive men and their eras than any of their more formal 



36 ENGLISH PROSE. 

productions could possibly do. Such a form of episto- 
lary prose is especially valuable in an age when good 
literature is struggling for existence against grievous 
obstacles, and when the natural expression of thought 
is most difficult and most desirable. When, there- 
fore, in The Paston Letters we discern a good degree 
of grammatical accuracy, a comparatively large vo- 
cabulary, and a fluency of diction indicating " the 
pen of a ready writer," we at once, accept the corres- 
pondence as a good specimen of the current prose of 
the time. 

(c) A third and somewhat fuller list of Modern- 
English Prosers in this middle era awaits us as we 
pass into the sixteenth century, almost within sight 
ot the Essays of Bacon, and the era called M(idern. 
The call of the roll is substantially as follows, — More, 
Latimer, Lord Berners, Eiyot, Hall, Fabyan, Leland, 
Tyndale and Ascham. "Though these writers," as 
Minto suggests, "are very far from being of use as 
models of style," we may add, that they serve a most 
important use in our study of the historic develop- 
ment of English Prose from its beginning to its 
present forms. With More as the author of " Utopia" 
and other Latin treatises, we have nothing to do; but 
with More as a literary leader of his time and the 
author of English works such as, Edward V. and 
Richard HI. we have much to do. Young, brilliant 
and scholarl)^; versed in all classical and modern lore, 
he was even in his Latin writings a quickener of the 
English mind, while in so far as he wrote in the 
native tongue, the weight of his personal influence 
gave to his words unwonted power. 

Latimer was the John Knox of his time, and is con- 
nected with the history of English Theological Prose 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON. 37 

as a writer of bold, impassioned, pungent sermons. 
He preached straight at the " conscience of the 
king " and of all who heard him, and on such wise 
that moral reformation speedily followed. The fact 
is, that the pulpit prose of that day might well be- 
come the model of modern sermonizers, when men 
wrote with the Bible before them and for the salva- 
tion of men. One of the English yeomanry by birth, 
his homely prose took right hold of tlie honest En- 
glish heart and moulded the character of the common 
people. Of Bevners it is sufficient to state, that in 
his translation of Froissart's " Chronicle " he gives 
more than an average specimen of the prose writing 
of his time; and of Elyot, that his " Governor " pre- 
sents not only a valuable educational treatise for that 
early period, but a helpful one in the line of native 
prose. His other works — on philology, sanitary and 
social science — prove him to have been as versatile 
as he was practical. Hall, Fabyan, and Leland were 
the chroniclers of their time in the line of Avork 
begun by Froissart, in Latin, and continued by 
Berners in English, — one writing, The Union of the 
Family of Lancaster and Yorke; another. The 
Chronicles of England and France, partly in prose 
and, partly, in verse; and the third, The Itinerary, 
doing for travelers in England v/hat Mandeville Jiad 
done for tourists to Jerusalem and the East. It is 
pleasing to note that though, as the King's Anti- 
quary, he wrote much in Latin, his best prose work 
is in his own tongue. We are now brought to the 
name of Tyndale and his great work of Bible transla- 
tion. In the face of threats from every quarter, he 
determined to " open the King of England's eyes," 
as to Protestant teachings, and to give the Bible to 



38 ENGLISH PROSE. 

the people in their own tongue, so that boys of the 
anvil and the plow would know more of God's 
Word than Papal priests did. But we are studying 
the subject of English Prose, and with this in view it 
may be stated, that Tyndale's version of the Scrip- 
tures — the first 'printed version extant — occupies on 
its secular side as important a relation to the history 
of our prose literature as any other one book. Su- 
perior to Wyclifs, in that it was from the original 
and was printed, it had the advantage, also, of all 
later versions, in that it appeared just when it was 
most needed. It determined, then and there, for 
all subsequent history, the fortunes of the English 
tongue and formed a basis for subsequent versions. 
It did for English what Luther's version, a few years 
earlier, did for German ; and no arithmetic can com- 
pute the indebtedness of the respective languages 
to the respective translations. Thousands who fail 
to form their lives on Scriptural teachings, form 
their speech upon them; and to these, and the daily 
journals, and a few printed books of household use, 
look for all that they learn of style and diction. 
Nor is it to be forgotten here, that this close of the 
JVIiddle-English era was an era of translations of 
Scripture. Coverdale's version in 1535, Matthew's or 
Roger's, in 1537, and Cranmer's (The Great Bible) in 
1539, appeared as the direct result of Tyndale's work. 
" It was wonderful to see," says the quaint historian 
Strype, " with what joy this Book of God was received 
not only among the learneder sort, but all England 
over." It was for all England over that it was meant, 
and in this fact lay its power as a specimen of 
English Prose. The last name of the list before us is 
the name of Ascliam, who stands on the border line. 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON. 39 

between the old and the new, acting alike as an 
historian and a herald. " His chief service to En- 
glish Prose," as Minto, referring to Drake, declares, 
"is the example he sets of writing in the vernacular.'' 
In his " Toxophilus,'' he gives the principles of good 
writing, as well as of archery, and in his " School- 
master," touches on various topics of interest in 
education. " I write," he says, " English matter, in 
the English Language, for Englishmen." He resolves 
"to think as wise men, and to speak as the common 
people." He is eager to write something for the 
yeomen of England and in his classical studies not 
to forget his own birth-tongue. Mr. Disraeli is right 
when he says, " that the volumes of Ascham are in- 
dispensable to any English library whose possessor 
in any way wishes to connect the progress of taste 
and opinion in the history of our country." Similar 
in spirit to Fuller and Walton, he did in his day an 
invaluable work in English Prose, and connects him- 
self historically with all that is best in our letters. 
Living and writing in four different reigns, he may 
well be regarded as the last of the Middle-English 
list, or the first of the Modern in the realm of Prose 
Literature. 

In surveying this roll of Prose Writers from 
Mandeville to Ascham, it is to be noted — 

That outside of the Bible, we have not yet found 
any standard prose writers of native English, writers 
upon whose style a modern student may be safely 
urged to base his practice and progress. While this 
is true, we have found not a few of these names well 
worthy to rank as forerunners of those mightier men 
whose number begins with Hooker and Bacon. They 
wrote in times of great civil and literary confusion; 



40 ENGLISH PROSE. 

in a language that may well be termed, Broken 
English, and in periods of marked moral decline. 
Still, they were staunch enough in spirit and English 
purpose to bring some degree of order out of the 
chaos; to maintain the thread of English speech 
clearly through all deviations and to open the way for 
the speedier incoming of a stable. Christian, English 
prose. No such example of stern and successful re- 
sistance to foreign influence can be found in history 
as that of these Middle Englishmen in their relation 
to Latin and Norman-French. In the face of all 
such opposition, the body of the language remained 
what it had ever been, while the native writers 
struggled on midway between an inflected and an 
uninfiected system, to express their thought in native 
forms, and they succeeded. It is not to be forgotten, 
indeed, that to the Norman-French they were deeply 
indebted for a large increase of vocabuLary and for a 
much larger variety of literary form than was pos- 
sible in the preceding period. Still they insisted, 
especially in prose, that the freshness of the old folk- 
speech must remain inviolate so that after all the 
disorder of the intervening centuries English should 
emerge in the time of Ascham more forceful than 
ever and better prepared for that great literary future 
awaiting it. We note that in 1258, Henry II. issued 
" to all his faithful, learned and laymen," a proclama- 
tion in the English tongue; that in 1349, Latin be- 
came subordinate to the home language; that in 
1362, English took the place of foreign tongues as 
the language of the courts; that in this year, also, 
Parliament was opened for the first time in English; 
that even in the fifteenth century, French became an 
accomplishment rather than a necessity, and that at 



THE CHRONICLE TO BACON. 41 

t-Tie invention of Printing, in 1442, the change from 
Middle to Modern-English Prose ^vas philologically 
and morally assured. From these historical facts we 
may get some glimpse of that great work that had 
been done by these writers, no one of whom Avould 
now rank as standard. In a much truer sense than of 
the First-English Prose it may be said that in our 
estimate of authors and authorship the line and 
plummet are not to be applied too closely lest we 
"undervalue what is of real importance. We do not 
desire with the scholarly Erasmus to magnify these 
primitive efforts into something unprecedented, noi 
do we desire to commit the graver error of some later 
critics and count them out as of little moment. It is 
tar too easy to confine attention to brilliant eras and 
Tefer epochs of preparation to the hands of the 
antiquary. English Prose is said to begin with 
Hooker, and so it does as a national and stable prose 
in its modern type, and yet a noble initial work had 
been done , by other hands from Alfred to Ascham. 
In Italy, the way for the golden age was prepared by 
an early Arabian influence at work in Southern 
Europe. In France and Germany, similar preparative 
processes opened the way. Such influences though 
silent, isolated, and irregular, are, after all, determina- 
tive and constructive. If fewer and less excellent 
prose writings are found in early England than are 
found later, it was because nothing was fixed in 
literature or society, in politics or culture, and partial 
results were the best possible. But had it not been 
for these old chroniclers, translators, reformers and 
preachers, the golden periods of English Prose might 
have been deferred for centuries, if, indeed, they had 
ever become a part of our literary history. We re- 



42 ENGLISH PROSE. 

gard it as one of the urgent literary needs of the time 
that due attention be given by English critics and 
readers to these first and middle eras. It is cer- 
tainly an omen of good that increasing interest is 
now developing in these directions. Writers are 
calling attention to the necessity of the study of our 
first authors, not simply as a matter of etymological 
profit, but as the means by which an insight is to 
be obtained into our later literary life and history. 
Until the modern English student is thus furnished he 
is but half educated, and is using a language of which 
he is ignorant as to its origin and progress. Ever 
and anon as he advances from age to age, he will 
discern all along the line of the history of our prose, 
points of junction between the new and the old, 
influences and effects dating in their causes back to 
Wyclif and his forerunners. In the life of literature 
as in that of philosophy and science, the law of 
continuity, of logical sequence is fundamental; and as 
we prosecute the study of modern eras it may be well 
to keep before us the text of Chaucer in The Parson's 
Tale, — " Stand ye in the old ways, and see and ask for 
the old paths." 



PART FIRST. 

REPRESENTATIVE HISTORICAL 
PERIODS. 



CLASSIFICATION. 

The wide variety of view which has been taken by 
literary historians as to the number, limits and gen- 
eral characteristics of our Modern Prose Periods, 
sufficiently serves to indicate the difficulty involved 
in reaching satisfactory conclusions, and also the great 
importance of reaching them. Such periods are far 
more than chronological or historical in their import. 
They have as well, a philosophical and logical relation 
to each other and to that entire period of which they 
are the separate parts. This diversity of view has 
arisen, partly, from the particular standpoint at which 
each critic has stood at the time of discussion ; part- 
ly, from the fact that opinions once held are modified 
as a literature advances; and, partly, because the his- 
toric development of English Prose and Poetry, how- 
ever different, has been sufficiently similar to lead at 
times to a kind of classification that exactly expresses 
neither the one nor the other. As far as poetry is 
concerned, the great historical divisions are substan- 
tially the same among leading scholars. In Prose, 
these divisions take a wider range and may be said 
to be included in three quite distinct methods, repre- 



44 ENGLISH PROSE. 

sen ted by such critics, respectively, as Mackintosh, 
Minto and Bascom. From the standpoint of the first 
we have the following — 

(1) From Sir Thomas More (1500) to Clarendon 
(1650). Tliis is termed the Latin age of English Prose. 

(2) From the Restoration (1660) to 1750. This is called 
the Classic Age of natural, idiomatic English Prose. 

(3) From Samuel Johnson (1750) to the present era. 
The Rhetorical or Literary Period. 

This division, it will be noted, is based on a some- 
what sharp distinction between the progressive 
development of our prose and our poetry. The authors 
of it mean it to be confined to prose, and on this basis 
exclusively it has some merit, in so far as the dates 
are concerned. The names assigned to the respec- 
tive periods — Latin, Classical, and Rhetorical, are open 
to just criticism. 

They are scarcely in accordance with literary facts. 
The plan, moreover, is narrow and partial. 

Mr. Minto, in his admirable Manual of Prose, goes 
directly to the other extreme of undue minuteness, 
dividing the history of English Prose into no less 
than eight or ten distinct periods, beginning at 1580 
and closing about 1850. This gives to the different 
eras but an average length of a little over a quarter 
of a century — far too limited, in most cases to mark 
the full development of the period. In such a period 
as 1640-1670 it might do, but by no means in such 
periods— 1700-1730, or 1790-1820. The classification 
as a whole, is so full as to break the historical con- 
tinuity by excessive subdivision of epochs ; and again, 
in its separate parts, so narrow as to forbid a free 
expression of the literary prose of the time. 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. 45 

A third class of critics, represented by such men as 
Morley, Masson, Moir, andBascom, has wisely avoided 
each of these extremes, and adopted -a method by 
which the logical as well as the chronological view 
of English Prose may be manifested. President Bas- 
com, in his Philosophy of English Literature, ap- 
plies this method both to Modern Prose and Poetry 
in the following order of periods — 

First Creative, 1550-1650. 

First Transition, 1650-1700. 

First Critical, 1700-1750, 

Second Transition, 1750-1800. 

Second Creative, 1800-1850. 

Period of Diffusion, 1850- 
In each of these six periods, ample room is given 
for the full expression of the individual life of the 
period and yet each is sufficiently compact to mark 
the period as distinct, while the excellence of the 
plan lies in the fact that behind the dates as given 
lies the philosophy of literary progress and decline. 
In the plan that we present, this last order of divis- 
ion will be the preferable one as a guide — though as 
to number of epochs, their names and relations, we 
shall widely depart from the order presented, and 
offer a classification of our own as follows — 

I. — Period of Formation, 1560-1660. 

Bacon — Milton. 
11. — Period of Transition, 1660-1700. 

Milton — Addison. 
III. — Period of Final Settlement, 1700-1760. 

Addison — Johnson. 
ly. —Period of Expansion, 1760-1860. 

Johnson — Carlyle. 



46 ENGLISH PROSE. 

The first of these eras includes the reigns of Eliza- 
beth, James 1., and Charles L, and the Protectorate. 
It is Elizabethan, and Early Stuart, and Crornwellian. 
The second era includes the reigns of Charles IL, 
James XL, William and Mary. It is the Later Stuart, 
or Restoration E^ra, and that of The Revolution, or 
Great Rebellion. 

The third era includes the reigns of Queen Anne, 
of George I., and George II. It is Augustan, and 
Early Georgian. The fourth era includes the reigns 
of George III., George IV., William IV., and Victoria. 
It is later Georgian and Victorian. 

We have thus clearly before us the historical limits 
of each of these four eras, the leading prose authors 
that mark the beginning and close of each, respec- 
tively, and the English kings, queens, and other 
rulers who, in each respectively, held the reins of 
government and favored or retarded the growth of 
letters. We shall arrive at the best results by dis- 
cussing each of these periods separately and, at the 
close, noting those general inferences which suggest 
themselves from a comprehensive survey of the four 
eras as one historical period of English Prose. 



CHAPTER I. 

FOEMATIYE PEEIOD— 1560-1660. 

This embraces, as we have seen, precisely a cen- 
tury, the reign of three sovereigns, including the 
Protectorate, and presents some of the leading names 
of English Prose. The widely current name assigned 
to this epoch — The Reformation Period — is some- 
what misleading and is not the best. In all depart- 
ments save the ecclesiastical and theological, it is 
formative or shaping rather than re-formative. Even 
in the sphere of the church itself, formation was, 
after all, the main work of Protestants. As English 
Protestantism may be said to take form for the first 
time in the era before us, it was the English Forma- 
tion rather than Re-formation. Precisely so, in Eng- 
lish Prose, as, indeed, in English Letters. As ETnglisb 
Prose may be regarded as having taken literary /o?"m 
for the first time in the days of Elizabeth, as con- 
trasted with the Middle and First-English Periods 
the phrase, formative, is the proper one to designate 
its character. It was in no true sense, re-formative 
la this respect the word, creative, so often assigned 
to the poetry of the age before us, is not out of place 
as to prose in so far as it involves the idea of fash- 
ioning or shaping, although the term, formative, best 
expresses that special process which was then going 



48 ENGLISH PROSE. 

on, — the molding or adjusting of all those literary 
elements which were at hand into a well ordered 
system of prose discourse. As yet, there was no 
English Prose existing as a body of literary product 
which could be re-formed. The work was more ex- 
perimental and tentative, than it was a revision of 
that already in being. We no sooner open the best 
prose literature of the age, such as Bacon's Essays, 
Hooker's Polity, or Johnson's Discoveries, than we see 
this formative process in action before us. As we 
shall see later in the. discussion, the real re-formatory 
process in English Prose finds ample scope in the 
third period, — that of Settlement. There was then 
something to recast into better shape as an essential 
work preparative to the final establishment of our 
Prose Literature either as a model for the student or 
a study for the critic. The epoch before us is not 
without a fitting parallel in the progressive history 
of creation. The first chapter in the history of En- 
glish Prose as it reads in the sixteenth century, runs 
very much in a literary point of view, as the first 
chapter of Genesis reads as an account of God's 
creative work. It is a record of formations. The 
First-English word for creator, Scyppend, the Shaper, 
is in place here and describes that partly original 
and partly mechanical or plastic work which was. 
done by the best prose writers in this first period. 
Bacon may be truly said to have re-formed philosophy. 
He cannot be said to have re-formed English Prose. 
He did much, however, toward forming it and putting 
it in shape for those who were to follow and perfect 
it. In developing more fully this particular period, 
we shall examine in order, its causes and character- 



REPRESEiVTA TIVE PERIODS. — FORMA TIVE. 4.9 

isiics^ pursuing a line of discussion somewhat similar 
to that adopted by Hazlitt in his Literature of the 
Age of Elizabeth and ever keeping in mind that our 
theme is, Prose Literature. 

(A.) Causes or Agencies of Formative English Prose. 

Friendly Agencies. 

(1) We notice, first, that Antecedent and Prepara- 
tive Work to which attention has been called, as it 
occurred in First, and, more especially, in Middle-En- 
glish Prose. Sufficient has been said in the historical 
survey of these introductory periods to make emphatic 
what is here asserted. We have seen that even be- 
fore printing was introduced by Caxton into England, 
and before published books were known, English 
Prose had a place in manuscript form, and bore an 
important relation to all that followed. We have 
traced the crude beginnings of prose in the writings 
of King Alfred, Aelfric, and the compilers of the 
Chronicle. We have follow^ed the course of it on 
through the days of Mandeville, and Wyclif, and 
Ascham, down to Modern-English time. The history 
is one. The people, the language, the spirit, the 
purpose, are substantially one. So connected are 
the epochs, that in discussing the opening era of 
Modern Prose, we are driven perforce to those still 
earlier years, wliich were what they w^ere and where 
they were, more for the ages that followed than for 
themselves, and which enter as an essential factor 
into the literary productions before us. As a man's 
antecedents do not determine, but largely modify hia 
character and possibilities, so here, Formative Eu- 



50 ENGLISH PROSE. 

glish Prose was somewhat the thing that it was, 
because of the prose that preceded it. 

(2) A second cansative agency is found in what 
may well be called, The Great Awakening of English 
Literary History in the sixteenth century, it was 
in England what the Renaissance was in France 
and in Southern Europe, and was in literature what 
that was in art. The epithet, Great, may be applied 
to it in that it aifected all departments of thought 
and action and pervaded every class of society, it 
was a time of new ideas and enterprises; of discovery 
and adventure; of mental, political, and religious 
revival — the golden age of national life. In the light 
ot the discussion before us, there were two special 
features of this awakening that demand emphatic 
notice. 

(a) It was distinctly modern^ — a time of evoking 
new forces into action rather than of the re-awaken- 
ing of forces long existent but slumbering. It was 
more like a regeneration than a revival or renewal. 
It marks the genesis of modern thought as distinct 
from ancient and draws once for all that broad bound- 
ary line which we discern between the old and the 
new. As far as it was an awakening at all, it was a 
modern awakening and in English Prose as in all 
things else that are English, manifests its modern im- 
press and character. 

(b) Nor was it modern only. It was modern En- 
glish. It is historically true, as Mr. Hallam urges, 
that this awakening was European or Continental, 
affecting more or less deeply every important nation 
of modern Europe ; still, on English soil, as nowhere 
else, did these new qualities appear, and in England, 



REPRESENTA TIVE PERIODS.—FGRMA TIVE. 51 

as nowhere else, did they bear abundant fruit. Not 
only did all that transpired in Germany and on the 
Continent indirectly affect England for good, but it 
was in the England of that time that these new im- 
pulses and principles centred and developed, so that 
it became for all modern historians the one best 
standpoint from which to study what Mr. Hallam 
calls — "The revival of literature in Europe in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries." These facts bear 
directly on English literature and on the prose por- 
tion of it. Not only was it the time of first things 
in English poetry as in the epic of Spencer and the 
dramas of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, but it 
marks the formation of English Prose — so that in 
history, theology, philosophy, romance, and general 
literature the first productions of our language are 
here found. Even in the line of English Prose Man- 
uals for educational purposes, this fact is quite 
significant. In 1551, we note the first scientific 
treatise in England on the Art of Discourse, by Wil- 
son. In 1558, by the same writer, the first treatise 
in English on Logic. In 1586, Bullock gives the first 
English Grammar, and in 1589, the work of Aelfric in 
the First Period is taken up in better form by Eider, 
who prepares a Latin-English Dictionary. Thus it 
appears that in technical work as in a wider field 
of literary prose, the era was conspicuously modern 
and English, and, thus, a mighty agent in the further- 
ing of that formative work which is now manifestly 
in progress. The eminently English character of this 
era and prose will be further noted in the sequel. 

(3) We notice another helpful agency in, The 
Attitude of Koyalty toward the Rising English. 



62 ENGLISH PROSE, 

Between the early dissensions caused by the bigotry 
of Mary and the later troubles arising from Civil 
War, there was now a protracted period of compara- 
tive peace nearly up to the time of the Protectorate, 
it is well known how Spanish Letters suffered by the 
policy of the Philips; how the literary progress of Italy 
was retarded by civil oppression and how similar re- 
sults folio wed in Germany while Adolphus and Wallen- 
stein were at war. English Letters now suffered but 
little from such disturbances. More than this, there 
was positive and practical aid to the aspiring writers 
of the time. Elizabeth, James L, and Charles I., did 
much, directly and indirectly, to favor this formative 
work. No modern literature has less to complain of 
in this regard than the English; while in certain 
instances, as in the case of Elizabeth, the reigning 
sovereign has not been content to give political 
protection to authorship, but has personally entered 
into the lists, and added to the literary product of 
the time. 

(4) A further friendly agency to the prose is seen 
in the number and importance of the English Ver- 
sions of Scripture in this era. Attention has been 
called to the fact that this was also a marked char- 
acteristic of the Middle- Prose Period, as seen, espec- 
ially,in the versions of Wyclif and Tyndale. Equally 
striking is the fact that this first period of Modern 
English Prose may be said to be opened, as it is 
throughout characterized, by the translation of the 
Bible into EngHsh. The Geneva Bible (1557—60), 
prepared by Protestant refugees, in Geneva, who had 
fled from the persecutions of Bloody Mary, was the 
popular English Bible for half a century ; and stands 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.—FORMATIVE. 53 

at the veiy opening of this era, as if to give it 
character and historic renown as the first prose pro- 
duction. As the first example of an English Version 
in which the old black letter gives place to modern 
English script and type, it fitly marks the passing 
away of the old, and the formal introduction of the 
new English Era of sacred and secular prose. In 
1568, there follow, " The Bishops' Bible," based on 
Cranmer's, re-issued by Parker in 1572 ; and, as most 
noteworthy of all, King James' Version of 1611, th« 
Bible of England and America down to the date 
of the recent revisions. This is the Bible of which 
ninety-five per cent and over is First-English; and 
which, as far as the vernacular itself is concerned, 
still remains un equaled. It is more than a speci- 
men of the Kings English. It is the people's 
English. Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon 
the fact, as bearing on our present purpose, that the 
Bible is an example, on its secular side, of English 
Prose, and enters as an essential element into this 
formative work. 

Viewed as a version, or translation, purely in its 
human aspect, as an example of English speech, it 
undoubtedly stands all through English literary 
history, and, more especially, in this era, as the lead- 
ing agency of all others. It did then for English 
Prose what no other production could possibly have 
done. It gave that true direction and character to 
English Prose style which is now an elemental part 
of it. English Prose is Biblical. 

These were the main friendly agencies at work in 
this first epoch of English Prose, applying more or 
less fully to all forms of literary activity, and, yet, 



54: ENGLISH PROSE., 

having a pertinent bearing on the formation of prose. 
This is especially true, as seen, of the Scripture 
versions as rendered into prose; and largely true also 
of that great awakening of modern English life 
which marked the era throughout. Let us note 
some Adverse Agencies. 

Adverse Agencies. 

1. The Peculiar Grammatical Structure of the En- 
glish of this period which, as bad as it was in poetry, 
was more liarmful in prose. 

We allude here to the fact that English syntactical 
and verbal structure was greatly unsettled, and 
necessarily so. This arose, mainly, from the results 
that attended the breaking up of the old inflectional 
system. That system prevailed in First-English, par- 
tially existed in Middle-English, and was still in 
process of change. Mr. Abbott, in his Elizabethan 
Grammar, has given the fall history and explanation 
of the Englisli of this period. Varieties of grammati- 
cal form not tolerated now were then admissible. 
Gross violations of modern grammar were then in 
order on every page. Inflections were retained or 
rejected at pleasure. Words in double senses outside 
of figurative usage were freely employed. Literal 
and metaphorical uses were quite the reverse of what 
they are now. In a word, the writer took his own 
way, despite all existing rules. There was no law 
nor standard. Hence, it was with no little dif&culty 
that the prose authors of that time at all succeeded 
in forming an English Prose and serves to show 
conclusively that those critics are in error who insist 
that we have in this first era a fully developed and 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— FORMATIVE. 55 

settled English Prose. This was in the nature of 
thiugs impossible. The shifting gratnniar of the 
language made it impossible. The authors did the 
best they could; and the marvel is, that with such 
materials in hand they formed so goodly a structure. 
The prose was in formation, just as the language 
itself was, and because it was. The one could not 
advance toward fixed establishment more rapidly 
than the other. In poetry it was somewhat different 
in that a larger freedom in the choice and use of 
grammatical forms was and is permissible. The 
quaint phrase was often the preferable one. 

2. The rise of Euphuism, and, The Metaphysical 
School of Prose. In a word, the rise of a conceited 
style. 

Tliis was not germane to England or English 
writers, but came from without. English Prose is at 
fault in that it so readily received and applied it. 
While it flourished, it did no little harm in the forma- 
tive work going on. We shall have occasion in the 
sequel to trace the presence and influence of this 
school of conceit, whose disciples v/rote profoundly 
of the simplest thing, or atoned for absence of ideas 
by a wild profusion of quaint and overdrawn phrases. 
In no more unfortunate time could such a style have 
entered English Letters, [t was untimely, just be- 
cause our prose was taking shape and was keenly 
sensitive to every surrounding influence. At such a 
crisis, it was even more inclined to take on the evil 
than the good. Euphuism no sooner came from the 
Continent to England, than Sydney, and other prose 
writers, became a prey to it; and from that day to 
this it has had more or less sw^ay among us. The 



56 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Metaphysical School of Donne, and Cowley, in the 
reign of Charles L, was the first to perpetuate it, even 
in grosser form, to later eras. They had all the 
faults of Lyly as a writer, without his redeeming 
features. 

3. Tlie Revival of tJw Classical Languages and 
Literature. 

This was, in all respects, the most prominent, con- 
stant and formidable obstacle in the formation of a 
native English Prose. We are now speaking of this 
classical awakening simply in the light of its un- 
friendly relation to the English; it being well known 
to ever}^ student of history that the blessings of that 
general revival of the old learning were invaluable. 
There were three distinct forms of foreign influ- 
ence which at the time worked against our English 
Prose as English, — the Latin, Greek, and Italian. 
We have noted how, in the First-English Period, 
most of the English writers of prose wrote in Latin. 
We have seen that in the Middle Period, up to 
the time of Caxton, Latin still had a large place 
in the prose of Englishmen. In the sixteenth cen- 
tury, also, new forces were at work in Europe, in 
the interests of old Roman Letters. The revival was 
general and pervasive, and once again made it- 
self felt in special power on English soil. It is now 
that the classical professorships at Oxford and Cam- 
bridge were established on a sure foundation, while 
it was regarded as in place for all those who were 
counted among the scholars of the land, to make 
themselves conversant with the old learning now 
made new. 

Precisely so as to Greek. After the capture of Con- 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— FORMATIVE. 57 

stantinople in 1453, this language became the free 
property of scholars all over Europe, and of course, 
moved steadily northward and westward across the 
English Channel. The enthusiasm over the Greek at 
the great educational centres of England, was even 
greater than over the Latin. It spread far and wide. 
It permeated all quarters, so that under such instruc- 
tors as Erasmus and Cheke, thousands of ambitious 
students were introduced into the mysteries of Attic 
lore. It was a kind of Athenian contagion, a "new 
thing." So, as to Italian. This was the special 
period of Italian influence on English; the age of 
Ariosto and Tasso, and the prose writers beginning in 
the time of Henry VIII., and pervading the reign of 
Elizabeth. Erom this brief survey it may readily be 
seen that if, in one respect, the drift of the age was 
modern and English, in another, it was backward and 
classical. Books in Latin, and, more especially, trans- 
lations in Latin and Greek, now abounded. Fox and 
Jewel, Parker and North, and hosts of others, resorted 
in preference to the older tongues. The Queen, her- 
self, made the Italian and Greek a part of her daily 
task- work under the guidance of Ascham and others. 
English Reformers wrote and preached and wrangled 
in Latin. More and Browne, Milton and Bacon 
wrote in Latin. Nothing will more clearly reveal 
the powerful sway which the Latin then had than the 
language which Bacon himself uses. Of his Essay's 
he says: "I do conceive that the Latin volume of 
them, being in the universal language, may last as 
long as books last." Again he says: " My labors are 
now most set to have those works which I have form- 
erly published (in English) well translated into Latin. 



58 ENGLISH PROSE. 

For these modern languages will, at one time or 
another, play the bankrupt with books; and since I 
have lost much time with this age, I would be glad 
to recover it with posterity." Such language was 
somewhat natural, perhaps, in a man whose main 
work was philosophical and who wrote with one eye 
always on Aristotle and the Latin Schoolmen; but it 
was not confined to Bacon. It was in the air and 
temper of the time as the result of the classical 
renaissance, and is still another proof that whatever 
the English Prose of the time was, it could be forma- 
tive only, and not final. The foreign influences from 
all quarters of Europe were too many and potent to 
allow it to become stable, or to do anything more 
than successfully to offer resistance, or make judicious 
compromise. In fine, there was a strong reactionary 
tendency to other forms than English. Just as in 
the Civil Wars of Middle-English, the language con- 
tinually reverted to old dialectic usage, so now, under 
, a pressure from abroad, native forms and forces re- 
verted of necessity to the older life of mediaeval and 
ancient Europe. The era was more than critical for 
English Prose and Poetry and for the English Speech 
itself. 

If we ask how and why the influence was checked 
and caused to recede, we come in contact, at once, 
with the providential element in human history — 
especially manifest in English History. It was thus 
that the Koman armies strangely left Britain when 
they did, in 425 a. d. It was thus that Romish 
Missionaries in the sixth and seventh centuries in. 
England were thwarted in reducing the country to 
Romish doctrine and rule. It was thus that in the 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— FORMATIVE. 59 

French and English Wars, England somehow tri- 
umphed; and so it was, that just as the old heathen 
influence from Latium, Greece and Italy, poured in 
upon England as a flood, there was another flood of 
deeper depth and mightier momentum, in the form 
of the Protestant awakening; so that the English 
Church and the English Tongue were saved together 
as English. 

(B.) Characteristics of Formative English Prose. 

1. Increasing Grammatical Begularity. 

Allusion has been made to the variable, unsettled 
structure of the grammar of this period, due to the 
surviving struggle between inflected and uninflected 
English. Hence, the diction and rhetorical character 
of the authorship were ever changing, but also, ever 
tending to permanence. The conflict now, it is to be 
noted, was not between foreign forms and native, but 
in the bosom of the home-speech itself between one 
form of English and another. There was danger in 
all this, and, yet it was the sign of life and progress; 
the same inward principle of life that was at work in 
First-English Prose at the hands of Alfred, and in 
Middle-English under Wyclif and Aschara. Here it 
is once again manifest, that English Prose was not 
yet fully settled, but in process of settlement. Even 
such cautious writers as Tyler, and Morley, speak of 
" formed" English Prose even before this era. It was 
formative only, but as such, more and more inclined 
to take an abiding cast and character. Unsettled, in 
a sense, as the best examples of it are, there was still 
a molding work done at that time wbioh could have 



60 ENGLISH PROSE. 

been done neither before nor after, and which was 
absohitely essential to the existence of this form of 
literature. 

2. An Increasing Vocabulary. 

From what has been said relative to the great 
mental and moral awakening of this period, it can 
readily be inferred that words were pouring into 
English from all quarters. This was not confined, 
however, to the incoming of foreign terms. The 
native speech was broadening under the influence of 
the new impulses. Mixed English was becoming 
more and more a pure English, while even for- 
eign words themselves were received and com- 
pacted into the bod_y of the home language. Those 
prose authors who felt obliged, for prudential rea- 
sons, to continue the use of the classical Latin, 
did so with ever renewed distrust; until ali length, 
they yielded with the poets to the resistless pres- 
sure of native influences. Even at this early pe- 
riod there were forty-five thousand words in our 
vocabular}^ nearly one half of the present number 
— while the manner in which the Bible Versions 
controlled common speech made it more and more 
native in character. 

3. Its English Spirit. 

Foreign Influence had now reached its height and 
was declining, while the home influences were coming 
into ever wider scope. Especially true in poetry, this 
characteristic marks, also, the prose. Though Bacon 
wrote his philosophy in Latin, still, that part of his 
prose which was designed to be practical, " to come 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— FORHIATIVE. 61 

home to men's business and bosoms," was wisely 
written in the mother tongue. Though the reign of 
James T. was somewhat under the influence of Spanish 
Letters and though canons of French taste revived 
toward the time of Cromwell, still, this English spirit 
was dominant over all and ever on the increase. 
The foolish conceits of Lyly and his followers affected 
the surface more than the centre of authorship. 
Deep down in the inner life of the best literature the 
servitude either to ancient or modern Europe was 
solemnly forsworn and a new departure at once taken 
into the liberty of the home-speech. The age 
was eminently English, because it was free from all 
the trammels which had hitherto bound it. Men 
were doing their own thinking in their own way, and 
this newly acquired intellectual liberty meant an ever 
wider removal from classical terms, and an ever 
firmer committal to the modern and the advancing. 
Modern progress meant English progress more than 
anything else and the prose authors of the time em- 
bodied and transmitted it. If the queen could boast 
of her proficiency in the Greek and Italian, she could 
also boast that she employed a preceptor, in the 
person of Ascliam, to compose his Toxophilus in the 
special interests of his native speech. Whatever the 
prose period was or was not, it was one of mental 
freedom in the interests of the home-tongue. 

4. Its Versatility. 

This arose largely from the rich infusion of new 
ideas that then took place and from the consequent 
stimulus of the English mind. Not only in poetry, 
but, in prose, — theological, philosophical, to historical 



62 ENGLISH PROSE. 

and general — this variety is manifest. It reminds 
one, as he enters it, of a rich tropical clirae where nature 
displays herself in a profusion almost bewildering. So 
rich and versatile was the literary product that the so- 
called second rate authors might with justice be 
cited as examples of good literary work, while the 
names of first excellence were so supreme as still to 
hold in English Letters the place that was then as- 
signed them. 

5. Human or CatJiolic. 

Never were what Whipple would call " Literature 
and Life," so closelv related as now. The man was 
in the author and his book. Men discussed what 
we term living issues, and in a living manner. It 
is this characteristic of the prose of this age that 
Mr. Hallam must have had in mind when he says: 
^' There was never a generation in England which for 
worldly prudence and wise observation of mankind 
stood higher than the Elizabethan." It was an age 
in which the principles of human nature in general, 
as well as the English human nature in particular, 
were deeply studied and fully expressed. 

Never have writers understood each other and the 
world better. They seem to have had an instinctive 
as well as a studied knowledge of their fellows, and 
could portray them to themselves. In this particular, 
Shakespeare stood first; but he had many able disci- 
ples in poetry and prose. It was natural that the 
great authors of this period, especially in the days of 
Elizabeth, should thus become the skillful interpre- 
ters of men to men. The literature could not but be 
catholic and spacious, in an age when church and 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— FORMATIVE, 63 

state were alive with good impulses and when the 
special mark of the period was that the ancient was 
giving way to the modern, monasteries to universi- 
ties, priestly bigotry to Protestantism, and narrow- 
ness to breadth of idea and spirit. 

English Prose has many excellences now which it 
had not then; but it has never had a larger degree of 
general robustness and vigor than then it had. It 
was heroic, chivalric, and wide embracing, — the age 
of man and of truth. 

6. Protestant and Etliicat 

The Literature of the time was under the influence 
of the English Reformation and that of the English 
Bible and Christian Reformers. As grand and general 
as the intellectual progress of the time was, there 
was a moral movement deeper and wider. The 
sceptical Buckle, in his account of European Civil- 
ization, is scarcely competent, as a rationalist, to give 
a true history of this era, on its religious side. It is 
a spectacle as pitiable as it is fruitless, to note the 
attempt on the part of this adroit historian to give 
us the explanation of this era apart from this ethical 
feature as most prominent. Gibbon, in his record of 
reasons for the early establishment of Christianity in 
the Roman Empire, is far more political and judicious 
in that, with natural and social causes, he is free to 
admit the presence of others. There is no part of the 
racy criticism of our literature by Mr. Taine more 
suggestive than where he is brought face to face with 
this special aspect of British life. Admitting that the 
Reformation entered England "by a side door," he 
grants that it entered and speedily induced among 



6^ ENGLISH PROSE, 

all the people tha-t " crisis of conscience which is 
natural to the race." He calls the Bible " England's 
book," and marvels at that persistency which in spite 
of protestation caused it to be read and heard. 
"Never," he adds," has a people been so deeply im- 
bued by a foreign book, or let it penetrate so far into 
its manners and writings, its imagination and its 
language." Such are the concessions that must be 
made even by French and prejudiced critics. The 
period was Protestant and moral as compared with 
the preceding, or as compared with contemporary 
periods across the Channel. The age was golden in 
this respect as much as in any other. It did more 
for our literary future in this regard than in any other, 
and served to mark, for all time, the prose of England 
as elevated and Christian. 

At the close of this era in the days of Cromwell, 
an era especially of prose, a peculiar phase of this 
ethical literary life comes into prominence. We call 
it Puritan, oftener Puritanic, and in some respects, we 
admit it marked a decline from the stalwart morality 
of earlier times. Still, it was a distinctively moral in- 
fluence, somewhat narrower and less attractive than 
that of Sydney's day, and, yet, an earnest protest 
against the low and base. Certainly, no sounder 
form of English Prose exists in any period than we 
find in the writings of Walton, of Fuller, and Jeremy 
Taylor. 

If Protestantism overreached itself in some of 
these Puritan Prosers, and degenerated, often, into 
bigotry, the balance was more than struck by their 
living earnestness on the side of truth and on behalf 
of English morals. The Puritans have had their 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— FORMATIVE. 65 

share of sneer and satire at the hands of Macaulay 
and others. They had, however, a mission and ful- 
filled it. Open to criticism at many points, suffice 
it to say that they could be ill spared from English 
History or English Letters and in the time of which 
we speak did no inferior work in the line of a solid, 
serious, ethical, English Prose. As we close the 
survey of this first period, it is quite noticeable that, 
although at the opening of it, in the reign of Eliza- 
beth, English Prose was inferior in quality and meas- 
ure to poetry, — at the close of the era, as we near the 
Protectorate, these relations were reversed, so that 
prose has marked an advance and we find ourselves 
somewhat further on in its historic development. 
Still, from beginning to end, the prose was substan- 
tially one. Hooker at the opening, and Milton, at 
the close, had much in common both as to merit and 
demerit. However different the varied features of 
the period are, they are alike in this — that they were 
formative and Elizabethan. As Mr. Brooke correctly 
remarks in speaking of the prose authors of the 
Cromwellian era itself, " The style of nearly all these 
writers hnks them to the age of Elizabeth. The 
prose of men like Brown and Burton and Fuller, is 
not as poetic as that of the Elizabethan writers, but 
it is just as fanciful." He speaks of the prose of Tay- 
lor and Milton having all the faults common to the 
days of Hooker and Bacon. In fine, the century was 
one of prose in process of settlement, and all minor 
differences are lost in the great fact that we find in 
1650, as the period closes, English Prose was mainly 
what it was as the era opened in 1560 — a prose still 
in formation, with a somewhat stronger principle of 



6G ENGLISH PROSE. \ 

\ 
) 

adjustment and unity present in it, and an ever clearer \ 

prospect of final fixedness. That era, however^ is i 
suddenly delayed for a half centnry of political and 
social events, and ere we come to settled prose, we | 
must note an epoch of transition. i 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE TEANSITION PEKIOD— 1650-1700. 

This period embraces nearly a half century — the 
reigns of Charles II., James II., William and Mary; 
and as compared with the period preceding, is one 
of decline, as it is, also, far inferior to the era imme- 
diately following. 

It will be necessary, at the outset, to note the 
nature of these Transitions, and the application of 
the term to the period now before us. 

Transitions. 

These are historical and literary and appear iu the 
development of every nation's mental life. It is 
these changes to which Mr. Hallam refers in speak- 
ing of the general history of the European mind 
— its best and worst epochs. He says, ''There is, 
in fact, no security, as far as the past history of 
mankind assures us, that any nation will be uni- 
formly progressive in science, art, and letters, nor do 
I perceive, whatever may be the current language, 
that we can expect this with much greater confi- 
dence of the whole civilized world." Such a remark 
is made from no pessimistic view of the defeat of 
truth in the earth, or the relation of Providence to 



68 EN-GLISII PROSE, 

human progress, but rather from the undeniable 
lesson of the world's experience that all that is 
human is subject to change. It is precisely what 
Disraeli would call the principle of " crises and re- 
actions," as founded in nature and ratified in history. 
In no department of mental inquiry and study is 
this principle more patent and influential than in 
literature. No important literature of ancient or 
modern times, has failed to exhibit it. If Italy had 
her golden age of Tasso and Ariosto, she had, as well, 
the reactionary age of Marini, in the seventeenth 
century. The age of Cervantes, in Spain, was closely 
followed by that of Gongora; while the classical eras, 
both of France and Germany, were alike preceded 
and followed by epochs of mental weakness or lit- 
erary indifference. In the history of English Let- 
ters, both in prose and poetry, this law of action and 
reaction is manifest. In the First-English Period, it 
is seen in connection with Danish and Norman 
invasions; in the Middle- Period, at the time of the 
English and French Wars; and in the Modern era, 
at successive epochs, such as the Civil Wars and 
Revolution in the age now before us. 

In fact the history of a literature, as of English, 
might be divided into the two periods of permanence 
and of transition, acting upon each other and interact- 
ing. The former are so fixed and their character so 
revealed that but little difficulty is found in correctly 
interpreting them. The latter are more perplexing to 
the literary student and, yet, full of interest and 
most important in relation to what precedes and fol- 
lows. These transitional epochs would seem to have 
a life and history of their ow , and give origin to 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— TRANSITIONAL. G9 

jnaiiy questions of peculiar interest. Why in En- 
glish Letters they occur just when they do; why they 
are long or short in duration; why they appear 
at somewhat regular intervals along the development 
(jf the literature, and why they should be now from 
the better to the worse and, now, the opposite — are 
queries which belong lo the phiJosopliy of literary his- 
tory, and are at this moment the subject of careful 
study on the part of the best English Critics. Presi- 
dent Bascom, in his discussion of English Literature, 
speaks of two of these transition periods — the one 
being that era now in question and the other, the 
second half of the eighteenth century. What he 
calls "The Retrogressive Period," from the opening 
of the fifteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth, 
might also be called by this name. Mr. Taine, in his 
English Literature, less formally, but with equal cer- 
tainty, marks the appearance and disappearance of 
these eras in our prose and poetry. 

Appropriateness of the Term to this Era. 

This is seen from its TJnsettled Character. The 
Revolution of 1640 had closed with the execution of 
Charles L The stormy days of Cromwell then fol- 
lowed. After that, in the era now before us, there 
came the civil disorders under the second Charles, 
and James IL, ending, in the Revolution of 1688, 
in the reign of William. For more than half a cen- 
tury, the nation was distracted. The period was 
purely revolutionary, either by the presence of home 
or foreign strife. Even when, for a time, theie 
seemed to be peace and settled order, the quiet was 
purely external and there was constant danger of 



70 ENGLISH PROSE, 

outbreak. It was an age of violent extremes in 
thought and life. In the church, the struggle was 
between Puritan and Prelate, Protestant and Papist, 
Presbyterian and Independent. In the state, the 
Royalists and Roundheads opposed each other. In 
society, morality was confronted with open profligacy; 
while, in literature, ability and character struggled 
to hold /their own against mediocrity and the lower 
aesthetic tastes of the time. At no era in English 
history can such clashing interests be found. Level- 
ers and Seekers, Rationalists and Free Thinkers, Fifth 
Monarchy Men and Fanatics, were all active for 
precedence. 

It is not strange that Dryden, the central literary 
figure of the, time, especially in poetry, exclaims with 
feeling: 

* ' Must England still the scene of changes be, 
Tost and tempestuous, like an ambient sea? " 

There was no moderation in the age. The golden 
mean was never reached by any ^oct in church or 
state. Monarchy need not be despotic, but the 
Stuarts became so. Prelacy may exist without inter- 
fering with the subjects' freedom and Puritanism can 
be held without offending the world by its morose- 
ness, but it was not thus. Bad men were especially 
bad and good men were good to a fault, in the mode 
of the expression of their goodness. There was no 
unity. All was divergent and one-sided, unnatural and 
transitional. What the age was in church and state, 
and society, it was in literature — and it was in Prose 
Literature — an age of extremes. If we find keen and 
telling satire against the vice of the age, we also find, 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— TRANSITIONAL. 71 

and even from the same pen, the most abject adula- 
tion of the great. High moral teachings strange- 
ly mingle with debasing maxims, while throughout 
the era, the shocking absence of any high order of 
English Prose as continuing the formative pi-ose of 
the earlier period makes it manifest that such litera- 
ture had for some reason come to a sudden cessation. 
The literary as well as the social continuity was 
broken and, for a time, the best minds of the age 
must either look back to the days of Milton, or on- 
ward to those of Addison, to be cheered in their 
work as prose authors. 

(A.) Characteristics of the Prose of this Period. 

1. Franco- English, or Anglo- Gallic. 
The satirical Butler, who was especially sensitive 
as to this feature of English in his time, speaks of 
England as " going to school to France." The 
expression may be taken as literally true. There 
were special reasons why Gallic influence was pecu- 
liarly strong at this epoch. It was the golden age of 
French Literature and an inferior age of English 
Literature. It was but comparatively a short time 
before the restoration of Charles 11. that the French 
Academy was established (1636) under the sagacious 
policy of Eichelieu, as the centre of French Culture, 
and in the middle j^ear of this era it was in its glory. 
It was but natural that the influence of the French 
■School at such a time was far-reaching and pervaded 
England. To this it must be added, that the exilo 
king going to France, attracted numbers with him, 
and he and they veritably " went to school to France." 
On their return to England, there began a kind of 



72 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Franco-English dynasty and English Literature re- 
ceived then and there a Gallic impress from which it 
will never be entirely free. Some benelit resulted, 
indeed, but the issue was mainly evil, as to our prose 
and poetry. The special misfortune lay in the fact 
that, whatever may have been the apparent relation 
of the two countries and literatures, they were at 
heart utterly at variance. There are no two national 
characters more unlike than the English and the 
Gallic. They are not necessarily hostile, as the 
German and the Gallic are, but they are uncongenial. 
'Twas so in the eleventh century (1066), when a kind 
of coalition was effected at the point of the bayonet. 
Even Dryden, with all his classic and continental 
tendencies, saw this and deplored it. He entreats 
his fellow authors to be natural, as Englishmen. 

" Let us our native character maintain. 
'Tis of our growth to be sincerely plain." 

The advice was ingenuous but of no avail, while 
Dryden himself sinned against his own theory. No- 
thing could have been more untimely and harmful as 
to its effect on English Prose than such an influence 
in such an era. Our prose was in process of forma- 
tion. From the time of Ascham to that of Milton 
and Bunyan, this formative work had not been materi- 
ally checked. It was continuous and promising 
and just about to take shape permanently not only as 
prose, but as English Prose. Foreign French influ- 
ence now enters, not only to delay, but to direct and 
modify the plastic work — to turn the course of 
prose development into a new channel — to make it a 
mixed English Prose. Elizabethan prose had many 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. — TRANSITIOiYAL. 73 

defects incident to its character as formative, but 
with all its faults it was superior to that which fol- 
lowed. Instead of the natural, fresh expression of 
the earlier English, there appears the formal, courtly 
style of the foreign school, and all is changed for the 
worse. Rarely, if ever, has our literature been so 
sadly affected by outside agency. Under other social 
and historical conditions, the influence might have 
been overruled and salutary. As it was, it was 
baneful. 

In Chaucer's time, French influence was strong. 
In the time of Henry VIII., Italian influence was 
strong as was that of Germany later in our history. 
All these influences, however, were under the control 
of the home literature at the time and were helpful, 
more than harmful. In the days of the later Stuarts, 
it was partly the shame and mainly the misfortune 
of England, that it was a dependency of France and 
its authors were the vassels of Gallic leaders. This 
explains another feature of the prose patent to every 
careful reader. 

2. The Inferiority of the Diction. 

It was what Swift aptly terms *' a jargon." Double 
and doubtful senses were purposely given to words; 
partly, as an exercise in frivolous wit, and partly, as 
the natural result of the inferior ability behind the 
language. Brevity of statement was carried to such 
extreme as to defeat its own end and became the 
veriest bufibonery and burlesque. In fine, it was a 
form of that old Euphuism which flourished in the 
first period, but which, coming to England through 
France, had taken on new phases even more revolting 



74 ENGLISH PROSE, 

to good taste and in v/hich Lyly and Donne were 
entirely outdone. The diction was mainly in the line 
of verbal device or display — the result both of mental 
and moral perverseness — and well adapted to thwart, 
for the time being, any advance m native prose. 
Just to the degree in which it was bombastic and 
pedantic, it was un-English, and marked an ever 
wider departure from earlier models. It cannot be 
denied that the vocabulary of our prose was largely 
increased in this half century of transition; but there 
are some things better for a literature than mere in- 
crement of words. The verbal gain was not all the 
gain, since it involved the addition of elements which 
have worked only harm in the province of English 
Prose. 

All this, in diction, was fully in keeping with the 
trivial temper of the time. The age was not serious. 
Why should the authors be ? The violent reaction 
from Puritan precision had set in, intensified and pro- 
longed by influences from the Continent; king and 
courtiers were alike corrupt, and Satan was abroad, 
in poetry. Cowley and Waller were absorbed in 
writing eifeminate verses for characterless ladies. In 
the drama especially, Wycherley is preferred to neg- 
lected plays of Shakespeare, while in the sphere of 
solid prose anything is admissible, so it reminds not 
of duty and moral responsibility. The phraseology 
of the time expressed the superficial character of 
the time. Most of those who wrote did v/hat they 
did as the exponents of the hour; and it is not 
strange that it was in such times as these that 
John Milton ended his days iii disappointment and 
neglect, while third and fourth rate versifiers and 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. — TRANSITIONAL. 75 

prosers were in honor at court and among the peo- 
ple. He had fallen on "evil days and evil times." 
So had English Letters. 

(B.) Helpful Agencies at this Era. 

It is not to be supposed, that even in this period 
of transition and general dechne, there were ]io forces 
at work on behalf of good literature and the develop- 
ment of a clear and substantial prose. One or two of 
these are conspicuous in their inflaence. 

2. Popular Agitation of Thought and Life. 

This has been noted in speaking of the revolution- 
ary chara.cter of the time and on the side of its 
danger and disadvantages. It has another side, 
equally important. Agitation in itself is healthful 
and stimulative. When exercised with regard to 
proper objects and confined within reasonable limits, 
and thus, under control, it has always tended to 
strengthen, rather than to weaken. Even when 
but partially fulfilling these conditions, it is pro- 
ductive of good in so far as it does fulfill them and 
serves to increase the evil resulting from lawless 
insurrections. 

It is quite noticeable here, that just as the Forma- 
tive Period of our Prose closed with political and 
popular agitation in the persons of Cromwell and the 
Puritans, so this period of Transition, beginning with 
the general excitement attendant upon the return of 
Charles 11. and continuing in bitter feuds of the time 
of James II. ended in the reign of William and Mary, 
with the Great Revolution of 1688. Whatever the 
Commonwealth agitation did for the first era in the 



76 ENGLISH PROSE. 

line of a stalwart and trenchant prose, this final and 
pervasive English Revolution did far more. It settled 
two questions among others which, in their religious, 
political and social bearings cannot be overestimated, 
and which in the realm of the literature, then transi- 
tional, did a potent and enduring good. It settled 
the relation of the Romish Church to the Protestant, 
(in England) as one of subjection rather than su- 
premacy, and it settled the basis of Constitutional 
Government in England as opposed to despotism, 
or absolute monarchy. It introduced and guaran- 
teed the doctrine of popular rights in such wise 
that it has not been permanently disturbed since 
that era. 

The eiFect of this agitation on the native prose was 
extremely happy and healthful. It gave it just what 
it needed at the time — literary spirit, flexibility, force, 
manliness, positiveness and freedom of expression. 
It recovered that Protestant and evangelical tone 
under William of Orange which it had formerly 
possessed under Elizabeth and Cromwell and had 
lost under Charles II. and James II. It regained that 
native English temper and vigor which, in the inter- 
val of Stuart rule, had been impaired by excessive 
foreign influence. More than all, it recovered some- 
thing of that ethical purity which had so marked it 
in former days as distinct from the gross literature 
of the Continent. 

Not only was the Revolution of 1688 the most im- 
portant one in English history, but equally so in 
English Prose. The sum total effect of it was libera- 
tive and exalting. It broke away the barriers which 
a despotic church and civil polity had raised, and 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. — TRANSITIONAL. 11 

bade the English people go out into a wide area and 
on to a better history. The nation began to breathe 
a purer air and live a freer life. Men thought inde- 
pendently of others and spoke and wrote as they 
thought. Just as soon as the outward agitation 
ceased and matters settled into civic and social order, 
the authors of the time, who had been repressed and 
hampered, at once awoke to the splendid issues before 
them, and the future of English Letters was assured. 
It is noticeable just here, as in the days of the Pro- 
tectorate, that such healthful agitation expressed it- 
self mainly in prose, rather than*in poetry. In each 
of these periods — Formative and Transitional — poetry 
was prevalent at the opening, but prose at the close; 
and in each, this order was in keeping with the 
agitated character of the time and the special de- 
mand for honest, earnest words. In such times, 
authors must for awhile forego the pleasure of poetic 
invention and the indulgence of imaginative power 
and resort to that straightforward method of ex- 
pression which obtains in prose discourse. Locke 
and Temple, South and Sydney, Bentley and Collins 
could have written at that time in no other form than 
in prose. The gravest questions of church and' state, 
of society and letters were before them and there 
was but one medium for their expression. 

2. The Personal Character and Work of 
Leading Minds. 

This traditional era, bad as it was, was not given 
entirely over to evil men and agencies. Now, as ever 
in English history, strong opposition was manifested 
and so strong as, at times, to prevail. Special meed 



78 ENGLISH PROSE. 

is due to those men who, in such a time, sternly 
contended for sound morals and good letters and 
wrought patiently in the sphere of native authorship. 
One of the special features of the period is seen in 
the defensive attitude assumed by some of the prose 
authors of the time against the prevailing degener- 
acy. Their efibrt was to conserve what was already 
theirs. 

Inferior as the era in some respects was, it is safe 
to assert that there is scarcely an able writer of that 
time in English didactic prose who was not upon the 
side of mental and moral reform. It was because 
they were so outnumbered by the hosts of second- 
rate authors and men that the results are not more 
apparent. Even Dryden, whose main work was in 
poetry, and who in that sphere too often transgressed 
the limits of propriety, was in his prose more discreet 
and classic. As far as he went in this direction he 
Avas able and helpful and had he continued his prose 
Avork beyond mere Prefaces, Dedications, Translations 
and Epistles, might have gained a conspicuous place 
among his countrymen. If Thomas Ilobbes was writ- 
ing in the interests of a false philosophy, Cudworth, 
Locke and Newton opposed him. If some were 
slavishly addicted to the French, most of the best 
were loyal to their English ancestry and speech. A 
!)iilliant order of English Prose is not to be expected 
in such a period. The conditions did not exist. It 
is creditable to find even a second order of prose 
writers who, amid all discouragen:ients, maintained 
their ground and preserved, to some extent, at least, 
the historical continuity of English Letters. If the 
era was transitional, it had reference to what was to 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS,— TRANSITIONAL. 79 

follow it as well as to what had preceded it. The best 
that can be said of it is, that as we go steadily on 
from the opening to the close of it through its forty- 
two years, English Prose at the end of it, in 1702, is 
seen to be on a better basis, after all, than ever before; 
.and we can discern more easily than ever the character 
of the future that awaited it. 



CHAPTER III. 

PERIOD OE SETTLEMENT— 1700-1760. 

This period includes a little over half a century; 
the reigns of Queen Anne, George I. and George II., 
and may fitly be termed in this respect the Queen 
Anne and Early Georgian period of our prose. 

The Term Augustan applied to this Period. 

Leaving the transitional period between the For- 
mative era and the present, it is now in place to 
note this special epoch before us in the days of 
Swift and Addison. This age has been known here- 
tofore both in poetry and in prose, by no other 
name than Augustan and until recently, has been 
accepted by critics without debate, as deserving the 
title it bears. It has, also, had the sanction of general 
acceptance, though, it must be added, mainly through 
ignorance, or indifference as to the exact appropriate- 
ness of the phrase. The people of that era were 
quite willing, on grounds of national and intellectual 
pride, to have the age thus designated in history. 
Modern literary and historical criticism has objected, 
and rightly, to this appellation; so that the question 
is an open one. If inquiry is made into the precise 
origin of it, it will appear that the very reaction 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— SETTLED. 81 

which toolv place in church and state, in life and 
literature, led to its adoption. To those who had ex- 
perienced the troublous times of the Stuarts and the 
more objectionable extremes of the Great Rebellion, 
the period was indeed Augustan. It was so rela- 
tively, however, rather than really. Still further, we 
note from the pen of Carruthers, an English bio- 
grapher, that the age " was Augustan only in the 
patronage it extended to authors, which for extent 
and liberality was unexampled." 

In confirmation of this, he goes on to cite examples 
of English authors who enjoyed the protection and 
favor of the government. This high eulogium is in 
a sense true, but needs modification. If we look 
carefully into the personal character of the kings and 
rulers of the time and their respective political poli- 
cies, a particular of interest will be noted. It is, that 
their type of personal character was not such as ta 
lend to literature or to anything else a strong, posi- 
tive support. The order of royal mind was negative- 
and inferior. They cannot be said to have discour- 
aged letters. They did not heartilj^ favor thera^ 
The attitude was one of indifference. It was scarcely- 
possible for the narrow-minded time-serving Queen 
Anne to enter with zest into that new literary move- 
ment which had arisen by the sheer force of events. 
As to George I. his notable lack of culture was a 
disgrace to the nation he ruled. Little encourage- 
ment, surely, could be expected from him who was 
as ignorant of the correct and elegant use of English, 
as he was brutishly indifferent to its cultivation. 
Though at times assuming the air of a litterateur., he 
did so from mercenary motives and was playing a 



82 ENGLISH PROSE. 

part for which he was in no sense fitted. He was 
certainly in no wise a representative of the great 
Roman Augustus, from whom the age, in Rome and 
Britain, took its name. George III. in morals, fol- 
lowed his fathers, and as to genius, was a soldier, only. 
The royal attitude, therefore, in so far as it was 
favorable, was patronizing. Addison, Swift, Steele 
and other prose writers, as well as the poets, were 
the subjects of such favor; but it was for purposes of 
policy and selfish interest. Partisan politics absorbed 
too much of the attention of the powers to allow of 
any disinterested kindness to authors. It has been 
aptly remarked by Ward in this connection, " that 
the Whigs will crown Addison the Laureate of their 
party, but not till he has sung the glories of their 
acknowledged hero." Courtiers of varied rank and 
title feasted and flattered the authors, if so be the 
authors returned the favor in the form of excessive 
laudation. Failing to offer such return, the face of 
official support was coldly diverted from them. Sir 
Robert Walpole, so utterly unscrupulous in matters 
of state, was equally loose in his relations to literary 
men whose services he wished to secure. He so ex- 
tensively favored the authors of the time for private 
ends that he brought political patronage into de- 
served odium and transmitted his name to history as 
the most reckless " pen-hirer " of his day. He was 
strikingly different in this particular from Sir Wm. 
Temple, the famous diplomat at the court of William 
and Mary. In view of such facts, it is not surprising, 
to find the wn^iters of the time lamenting the want 
of a more healthful and ardent support at the hands 
of official power. 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— SETTLED. 83 

One of the tenderest expressions in English Letters 
is found in a poem written by poor Savage, called 
** The Poet's Dependence on a Statesman," in which, 
bastard that he was, he looks to the final judgment 
as his only consolation. 

** A scene will show, all righteous vision haste ! 
The meek exalted and the proud debased. 
Oh ! to be there ! to tread that friendly shore 
Where falsehood, pride, and statesmen are no more ! " 

The age was Augustan in the freeness of its royal 
patronage, but not in the motive and quality of such 
patronage. In noting still further the origin and 
propriety of the name Augustan, reference must be 
made to Latin Letters at the time of Augustus. 
Professor Covington, in speaking of the poetry of 
this age, remarks: "It is a curious circumstance 
that the advice given by Walsh to Pope — to be cor- 
rect in his writing — was precisely the advice which 
Horace gave to his countrymen." The remark will 
apply fully as well to the prose of this era. The 
point is, that the Horatian idea of written expression 
was different from that which had preceded. Horace 
took exception, as Boileau did in France, and the 
Essayists did in England, to the manifest indifference 
of most preceding writers to the exiernol form of 
discourse. He cautions them against what might be 
called, a loose extravagance of ideas and words, at 
the expense of concise finish of style. He insistvS 
that writers must express themselves with more 
precision and elegance. He rebukes the pride of 
Lucilius when he boasts of having produced two 
hundred verses in an hour and much prefers the 



84 ENGLISH PROSE, 

painstaking careofYergil who, after eleven years of 
revision, called his iEneid unfinished. In fine, he 
aimed to adjust, in their true proportions, quality and 
quantity in the literary product. In this particular, 
the term Augustan is in place, especially as to the 
first half of this Period of Settlement, between which 
time and that of Horace there is striking analogy. 
In each epoch, alike, the external structure of litera- 
ture was specially expressed. Not only so, but the 
epochs preceding and following these respective 
periods, in England and Kome, were strikingly sim- 
ilar as to the relation of form and subject-matter. 
The Pre-Horatian Period of Cicero, though not strictly 
a golden age as was that of Elizabeth, was, still, an 
age of profuse production, as distinct from that which 
is precise. The Post-Horatian Period also corres- 
ponded to the Post- Augustan Age in England as to 
the subjection of the critical element of Juvenal and 
Tacitus to wider forms of literary expression. Hence, 
in the use of the word, Augustan, as here applied, it 
is not to be employed as a synonym of Golden, thus 
relating it to the age of Bacon, but as referring to 
the times of Latin Letters, when perfection of literary 
form took precedence of the creation of literary ideas. 
If we divide the schools of literary expression into 
Creative, Impassioned and Critical, it is to the last 
of these that special reference is made. It was an 
age of didactic and formal prose, rather than one of 
original and emotional power. There was little of 
the " sensuous or passionate," of which Milton speaks. 
The statement which Mr. Hallam makes of the lit- 
erature of the reign of William will apply here far 
more correctly, as he says: "It marks the nadir in 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.—SETTLED. 85 

works of imagination." So strong was tliis didactic 
bent and tendency, that even in poetry it controlled 
all else. Where one expression of genuine poetic 
fervor is given, of the style of Thomson's "Seasons" 
or Collins, 6(;ores are given us after the formal man- 
ner of Pope and Young and Trior. Mark i\kenside 
writes a poem on "The Pleasures of the Imagination," 
of which the two main features are, that there is no 
imagination evinced in the production of it and no 
pleasure experienced in the perusal of it. It should 
have been written in prose. The era was one of 
verbal precision and in this respect sharply in con- 
trast with the ages preceding. It will be seen in the 
subsequent parts of this discussion that there are 
benefits as well as evils connected with this critical 
tendency in letters and that in this very feature of 
the era there are to be found those elements that 
make the Augustan and Early Georgian age one of 
prose rather than poetry. In this connection there 
remains a further feature of the age to be noted — 
Political Partisanship. It was a time of petty feuds 
and party rivalries — a war of words and pens, more 
bitter, at times, than that of the sword. It seems to 
have been the general impression of the time that 
after the Revolution of 1688 had closed affairs of 
state would adjust themselves into unity and pol- 
itical order. As already stated, in all substantial 
senses this was true. English Liberties and English 
Constitutional Government were for the first time 
guaranteed, as the result of that revolution. As in 
all such events, however, the immediate and external 
results were of a different character, and a certain 
amount af friction was occasioned just because affairs 



86 ENGLISH PROSE. 

were settling into proper relations and law was 
becoming'triumphant. This friction expressed itself 
in the sharp discussions of Whigs and Tories. There 
were factions for and against the government, fur 
and against the policy which Temple had introduced 
into statecraft, divers opinions as to foreign policies 
and the mutual relations of subject and sovereign. 
Friends of the old Stuart dynasty were still in the 
realm and as the double-minded Anne ascended the 
throne the Tories were in power. Political clubs of 
all descriptions, from the " Kit Cat" to the " October," 
arose, and defended their respective tenets. Addison 
was issuing " The Freeholder " on behalf of religious 
principles, while Swift was issuing his " Conduct of 
The Allies," and " Public Spirit of the Whigs," in 
defence of Toryism. The queen was worse than a 
figure-head. She was the puppet of the politicians. 
All were wondering as to the future, and as the death 
of Anne was announced in 1714, all was reversed. 
Dukes and Duchesses fled to France to escape the 
Tower. The top went to the bottom and the Whigs 
triumphed. "Curse on the word, party," said Pope. 
The strange thing is that literature lived at such a 
time. It finds its partial -explanation in the fact that 
the cJubs then formed were literary as well as civil. 
Comparing the Whig and Tory circles in this respect, 
it is suggestive that in the one, literature was domi- 
nant over politics, while in the other, this relation 
was reversed. When Swift wrote his trenchant 
prose invectives as a Tory leader, he was more of a 
partisan politician than an author. When Addison 
wrote his prose essays as a Whig exponent, the 
author was prominent over the interested member of 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— SETTLED. 87 

a faction, and it was the influence of this Addisonian 
spirit that gave to letters a permanent precedence in 
England over politics. As far as this party strife had 
sway, it tended to evil, and degenerated, often, into 
personal scandal and abuse. The inquisitive Disraeli 
might have constructed a volume upon. The Quarrels 
of Authors, without goitfg beyond the limits of this 
age. Had this strife been central rather than su- 
perficial and general rather than restricted in area, 
the age of Anne and the first George would have 
been the most unstable period of our history and 
literature. 

As it was, it is all the more interesting to note that 
English government and English Prose were alike 
established for the first time in this Augustan and 
Georgian Age to an. extent hitherto unknown, and 
in a form from which they have not materially 
departed. 

Appropriateness of the Term, Settled^ here Applied. 

This is seen in the fact that the great substantial 
/ rms of modern prose and the leading qualities of 
prose style as we shall study them are now so fully 
illustrated that they may be taken as a standard, or 
point of departure, in all critical study of our lit- 
erature. By this, it is not meant that there is exhib- 
ited in this period as high a style of English Prose 
as is found in succeeding years, but that it was in 
advance of anything preceding it both as to quantity 
and character, and is more modern in form and efi'ect 
than the best that had been produced hitherto. To 
our mind, critics have overreached themselves in their 
excessive praise of this era. We are aiming simply 



88 ENGLISH PROSE. 

to emphasize the fact that, apart from its quality as 
better or 'worse, it marks a prose for the first time 
settled, as distinct from one in process o^ formation 
or transition, as well as distinct from that which 
later on is more fully developed and applied. As 
settled, it was a better order of prose than that of 
the days of Bacon and Dryden, though inferior to 
that which followed in the succeeding era. 

A Period of Prose. 

The most important feature of this period, as com- 
pared with the two preceding it, is its distinctively 
prose character. In our study of the historical de- 
velopment of English Prose, this fact is invaluable 
and full of promise. It reveals to us the truth that 
from the days of Ascham on to Addison, progress had 
been in the main, unbroken. Despite the transitional 
character of Stuart times, the continuity was not 
altogether unbroken, and when in the days of Queen 
Anne our prose took settled shape and character, it 
must be confessed that forces had been at work of 
which no full account had been taken and that more 
advance had been made than the most sanguine 
critics had allowed. All the tendencies of the age 
w5}re prosaic in the best sense. The character of the 
age as it has been described demanded such a form 
of literary art as distinct from verse, so that even 
when verse was attempted it was of that order that 
bordered the most closely upon tbe un-metrical. 

Just as in the poetical age of Elizabeth, Sir Philip 
Sydney wrote the Arcadia in a prose that might be 
called poetical, so now, Pope and his colleagues in the 
sphere of poetry wrote a poetry that might be called, 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— SETTLED. 89 

technical and didactic. Most of what they wrote 
was virtual prose and they did wisely in yielding 
thus far to the spirit of the age. Never were the 
liistorical tendencies of a period and the literary 
work of authors more in harmony. Prose writers 
entered with fullest zest into the meaning of the hour, 
and poets if they must versify did so in terms of prose 
discourse and were poets simply in the sense that 
the accents of their poetry occurred at regular inter- 
vals. It is also suggestive to note here that the 
critical character of the age, as distinct from the 
creative, was inclined to express itself in prose. 
Essays on criticism, such as Pope's, were written in 
metre but are really prose productions. That temper 
of mind and order of mental power that finds its 
best expression in reflective and minute comment 
naturally uses the un-metrical form. Critical writing 
as critical, prefers the prose form, and when assum- 
ing any other, departs somewhat from its natural 
sphere. Hence it is seen that all the main literary 
tendencies of the age united in fostering that partic- 
ular form of literary art for which the nation was 
ready. 

It has been already stated that the close of each 
of the preceding periods was distinctively prose as 
compared with the opening. Here, the period from 
opening to close is a prose period; 'emphatically so 
and increasingly so as it goes on. Standing midway 
between the first two periods and the fourth, it ex- 
pressed the best of what had been secured already 
and laid the groundwork for all that was to follow. 
What Saintsbury says of Dryden may more justly 
be spoken here of Addison: "At the time when he 



90 ENGLISH PROSE. 

first began to write there was no accepted prose style 
of English. Great masters may be quoted from the 
seventeenth century, but their excellences were al- 
most wholly individual and provided in no way a 
model whereby the average writer might form him- 
self for average purposes. Prose is now the instru- 
ment of the average purpose."- 

English Prose, as systematic, now takes its place 
once for all in our literary history as distinct from 
those isolated and exceptional specimens of it that 
had marked the earlier eras. " For the lirst time," 
says Saintsbury, "the style of English Prose becomes 
simple and clear." If we compare the essays of Ad- 
dison with those of Bacon and Cowley, we shall 
understand what is meant by settled or formed prose 
as distinct from that which is formative and tran- 
sitive. Some of the characteristics of the English 
Prose of this era may now be noted. 

(A.) Characteristics. 

1. Periodical y as opposed to those more extended 
forms in which the prose of preceding and later 
periods found expression. The most cursory reader 
of the prose of the age will mark this feature first of 
all, and the more carefully the student examines it, 
the more he will see that, as certainly as the age 
demanded prose rather than poetry, it demanded the 
periodical form in preference to any other. This 
particular tendency began early in the era in the 
person of De Foe, who may be said to open that 
splendid series of periodical prose literature which 
has marked the history of English thought 
since his day. Dying in 1731, he belongs in part, to 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— SETTLED. 91 

the Augustan era. That the age should have de- 
manded such a form is eminently natural after what 
has been said as to its pohtical partisanship and club 
life. It was the golden era of party pamphlets — 
short, crisp and racy. The lines of Young were iu 
place. — 

♦* Our senate meets; at parties parties bawl, 
And pamphlets storm the streets and load the stalls. 
Truce, trace, ye Vandals ! our tormented ear 
Less dreads a pillory, than a pamphleteer." 

The official leaders and middle classes are just well 
informed enough to produce and read such documents 
and for the time being they monopolized the English 
mind. The transition from the political to the dis- 
tinctively literary pamphlet or essay, might have 
been difficult at some epochs, but was not in this. 
As already stated, the clubs were of both characters. 
Their members mingled in civic and scholarly debate. 
Addison and others wrote political essays in a lit- 
erary manner; and the transition from the partisan 
pamphlet to the finished essay was short and natural. 
When the strife of factions subsided, the literary 
element came into prominence and English periodical 
prose took its permanent form. It was the age of 
a prose that was sketchy and readable, the people's 
era in the realm of letters. That type of prose pro- 
ductions which is now termed "miscellaneous " began 
at this point. For this reason, if for no other, we 
are not to look to the Augustan age as some do, for 
our highest prose. For this reason, however, we 
are to look there for a settled type of general prose. 
The Essayists were in power. 



92 ENGLISH PROSE. 

2. Popular. It is important to emphasize the 
fact ol'ten contested, that the prose of this age 
was popular prose to a greater degree than any be- 
fore it. It was so just because it was periodical 
or racy, rather than technical. It was not theolo- 
gical to the extent in which Hooker's was, nor was 
it philosophical in the sense that Bacon's was, or 
foruial and scholarly even to the degree in which 
Dryden's was, but miscellaneous and catholic, the 
language of the club and the social company, a kind 
oi conversational writing for the great body of the 
people. Nor can it be said that the prose of this 
age was tliereby devoid of literary character and 
representative of the lower rather than of the higher 
order of style. 

It is one of the remarkable features of the era that 
while the English aimed to write a popular prose 
and succeeded in it, they still presented a prose 
which had all the essential marks of a high order 
of composition. As before stated, they did not pre- 
sent the highest form as compared with what fol- 
lowed, but they did improve upon all that had pre- 
ceded and handed down to the future a body of 
English Prose w^hich, even yet, is warmly recom- 
mended by critics to the student of English style. 
It was, in fact, the best work of this age that, avoid- 
ing the scholasticism of Baconian days, the extreme 
classicism of Dryden, and, also, that loose order of 
Btyle which aims to win applause at the expense 
of good taste and literary law, it stood on the safe 
middle-ground between these dangerous extremes, 
and produced a prose, literary and popular, and thus, 
readable by all. 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— SETTLED. 1)3 

This was the very form which the succeeding age 
was wise enough to adopt, perfect and transmit to 
the present era. Teclmical prose belongs to the 
schools. Prose produced in violation of all rhetorical 
principles and merely for the hour dies with the 
hour that marks its birth. The prose that is produced 
to live and which the educated public may not " wil- 
lingly let die," is that which was established in the 
age before us and still abides. 

It is important to note, in this connection, that 
British Prose Fiction finds its historical origin, as 
the periodical essay does, in this Augustan Age and 
in the persons of the same authors, De Foe and Swift. 
This fact is notable as marking the prose character 
of the period and, also, the fact that its prose 
was narrative, descriptive and popular rather than 
philosophic. 

Masson, in his " British Novelists " shows conclu- 
sively, that whatever may have been the earlier 
traces of the Novel in England and Britain, it began 
essentially in this age as a systematic prose form: 
and that whatever the superior excellence of later 
fiction, this was sufficiently good in the persons of 
Richardson, Fielding, and Sterne to mark it as 
worthy of criticism and historical place. Prose 
Fiction was then settled as all other prose was set- 
tled, and on the basis thus laid arose to that wide 
expansion which marked it in the days of the great 
British Novelists of the time of Thackeray. 

Before leaving this period, attention should be 
called to any special agencies at work for or against 
the native prose. We shall allude to one example 
of each. 



94 ENGLISH PROSE. 

(B.) Adverse Agencies. 

Tim Rise and Prevalence of French Griticism. 

The French Academy aimed to rule in England as 
well as at home. The ultra critical school of Boileau 
was in the ascendant and enforcing its technical 
precepts on every occasion. It was the reign of 
the Precieuses — a school so extreme in its canons 
and methods that the French dramatists themselves 
were obliged to satirize it. 

French influence had somewhat manifested itself 
before, in the days of Charles I., and more especially, 
at the return of Charles II. That, however, was 
largely social in its form and affected literature 
mainly on the ethical side. 

Now, this Gallic influence was purely literary, 
working in English Prose somewhat as Euphuism 
from Italy afiected the prose in the days of Sydney. 
Nor did the influence consist merely or mainly in 
the introduction of foreign terms into the vocabulary, 
but rather in the imposition of French laivs of liter- 
ary criiicism. Nothing could be allowed to pass 
current until it had squared itself to the line laid 
down by Boileau and the Academy. The danger was 
in the form of undue precision and nicety of expres- 
sion and when it is noted that all the tendeiioieH uf 
the time were critical, it was especially to be feared 
that criticism would control all else and present a 
body of prose without life or force. Such would have 
been the result had the French School with its En- 
glish adherents prevailed. The drift of the age, how- 
ever, towards its close changed from the critical lu 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS,— SETTLED. 95 

the popular and natural and the doom of the formal- 
ists was sealed. 

The revival of classicism which began with Dry- 
den and was furthered by his successors had well 
nigh spent its force when George 11. came to the 
throne, and, henceforth, English Prose was to be 
less foreign and more native than ever. The En- 
glish Academy had already taken the place of the 
French. 

(C.) Friendly Agencies, 

There was at work at this time a friendly agency 
that is not to be overlooked in its relation to Englivsh 
Prose. We refer to the Philological study of English, 
The subsequent history of our prose will reveal the 
pervasive influence of this agency. The student of 
our literature, especially on its prose side, will And 
from this time on that the development of the litera- 
ture and the language go together. Such develop- 
ment took its scientific origin in the age before us 
and its importance can scarcely be overestimated. 

In the Formative and Transitional Periods, it is in 
no sense a systematic study, but occasional and 
irregular; Bacon, Johnson, the Translators of the 
Bible, Milton, Locke, Temple and Pope had called 
attention to such study, but rather indirectly than 
otherwise. No school or science had been formed 
and no special study devoted to the subject till agi- 
tated by Dryden, De Foe and Dean Swift. Dry den 
had already lamented the looseness of English dic- 
tion even as it obtained in Elizabethan days and had 
taken actual measures for its correction. Had not 
Dryden been so devoted to the old classical lore, in 



96 ENGLISH PROSE, 

theory and practice, his influence would have been 
more marked. Swift, in his " Proposal for Correct- 
ing, Improving and Ascertaining (fixing) the Eng- 
lish Tongue" (1712), did the iirst and best work in 
the scientific study of English for its expression in 
prose forms. Tickell, in his " Prospect of Peace," 
speaks hopefully of a time when the language shall 
be released from its present bondage. So Prior, in 
his *' Carmen Secularo," makes mention of: 

"Some that with care true oloqiience shall teach 
And to just idioms fix our doubtful speech." 

Poets and prose writers alike were now alive, as 
never before, to the study of the native speech, not 
for its own sake, but on the behalf of literary ex- 
pression. When, in 1755, Dr. Johnson issued his 
"English Dictionary," a work was done for English 
speech and English Prose which cannot now be appre- 
ciated. Though it was a failure as an etymological 
lexicon for the scholar, it was a valuable dictionary 
for the age in which it was prepared, — the people's 
word-book, excellent for the time in its definitions, 
rich in illustration, and serving to unify and adjust 
all that had been done by Swift and others. Non- 
scientific as it was, it marked the beginning of the 
higher study of English Philology, and every later 
lexicographer must look into it. It introduced a 
kind of study which has done more for our literature 
than any other. Authors have understood that before 
they write they must know the nature of that language 
which they are using, — its forms, capacity and powers. 
Other things being equal, he will use the language 
with clearness, vigor, facility and grace, who subjects 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. — SETTLED. 07 

it, as a language, to careful study on a systematic 
method. 

At the point of view where we now stand, it may 
be clearly seen that English Prose has made decided 
advances since the days of Bacon and Dryden. Mr. 
Saintsbury, in his " Life of Dryden," assigns the ad- 
vance to four distinct causes: "The pulpit, political 
discussion, miscellaneous writing, and literary criti- 
cism." Whatever the causes may have been, they 
were numerous enough, and sufficiently potent to 
give us a ^xo&q finally fixed, rather than one in form- 
ation or transition. This was a decided advance 
and marks the age as one of prose. The age did 
more than this; it settled the prose as English, rather 
than foreign ; as popular, rather than technical ; as, 
correct, rather than loose and irregular; as simple, 
rather than involved; and as healthful, rather than 
harmful. 

Whatever may be said of the morality of the poetry 
of the time, or of the prose of such writers as Swift 
and Smollett, it is safe to state that the prose of the 
Augustan and Early Georgian Age was, in the main 
a marked advance over the preceding period, and 
fully ill keeping with that of the age of Elizabeth. 
In the Restoration, immorality was the law. Now, 
it is the exception. The general influence of the 
period was good. 

The time is now rife for a still wider and higher 
development of English Prose. Premonitions of its 
approach are distinctly seen as early as the opening 
of the Georgian era, and more distinctly still, as we 
enter the reign of George 11. It was in the days of 
Queen Anne and of Addison (1709), that he was born 



98 ENGLISH PROSE. 

whose name fitly stands at the bead of the new de- 
velopment. Samuel Johnson, with his dictionary in 
one hand and his Rasselas and Eambler in the other, 
introduces us, in person, to the fourth and final 
period of English Prose. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PEEIOD OP EXPANSION AND EXPKES- 

SION— 1760-18— . 

As far as the royal power is concerned, this may be 
styled the Later Georgian and Victorian Era. 

It includes the reigns of George 111., George IV., 
William IV., and runs on, a quarter of a century or 
so, into the present English queenship. It covers, 
in exact limits, the course of a century, while its 
forces are still at work before us. 

The Modern Period Proper. 

After noting in brief survey the First and Middle- 
English Periods as introductory. Modern English 
Prose was divided into four eras. Each of these falls 
within the province of Modern as distinct from our 
Earlier Prose. The period now before us is, however, 
peculiarl}^ so. Nor is it simply meant by this that it 
is most modern, because the last of the series of each 
period is more modern than the one preceding it, but 
that in character and measure of production it is so. 
It might properly be termed Present-English Prose, 
inasmuch as the larger portion of the period is in 
the present century. Even that portion of it found 



100 ENGLISH PROSE. 

in the eighteenth century is the very prose in its 
quality that is found in the nineteenth. It is modern 
emphatically in that English Prose has not materially 
changed in character since the opening of the era in 
17G0. It has now the same cast of tone and may so 
be studied. Just as Modern-English Prose dates from 
Siiakespeare, and yet the English of to-day in En- 
gland and America is more modern than his and thus 
different, so as to the literature, and especially the 
prose literature. It is nineteenth century prose. Built 
on the basis of Augustan Prose, it widely differs in 
the form and measure of its development. It has an 
individuality of its own. It is essentially new. 

Prevalence of Prose in this Age. 

We have seen that in the first period poetry pre- 
vailed, though prose had a history throughout, and 
was especially prominent at the close. In the second 
era, these were more evenly adjusted, poetry being 
more prevalent at the opening, and prose at the end 
of the era. In the third, prose takes precedence 
throughout. In this final period, there is a more 
healthful relation of these two forms of literary ex- 
pression than ever before. On a cursory glance over 
the pei'iod, it is puzzling to state the prevailing form. 
We state it correctly by saying that each is promi- 
nent throughout, and that while at the beginning 
the main development is poetic, the prose form tends 
more and more to precedence as the era goes on and 
finally secures it. If we extend this modern era to 
the England of to-day, the statement is more and 
more confirmed. It is certainly safe to style this 
period a distinctively prose period, whether we refer 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. — EXPANSIVE. 101 

to qnality, or amount of product. The era strikingly 
confirms the central point of our whole discussion — 
the gradual, historical progress of English Prose from 
Bacon to Carljle; interrupted at times, but again re- 
viving with renewed power, until we come to its 
highest expression in the present era. The Georgian 
Age has been termed by Masson, Minto, and most 
critics, the Prose Age. This is all true by way of 
quantitative estimate, aud relation to poetry. The 
proportion of Prose over Poetry was greater than it 
was before, or has been since ; but in other senses, this 
more modern era is fally as much entitled to the dis- 
tinction. It may be expressed as follows: That in 
measure and character of prose writing it has no 
parallel in English Letters. It is an Age in which 
more standard English pmse has been written, and 
by more standard English writers than is true of a:ny 
other — the Golden Age of our Prose, as that of 
Shakespeare is of our poetry. 

The Words Expansive, Expressive, as here Applied. 

These are selected as best setting forth the peculiar 
nature of the era. 

All modern critics of English Letters have united 
in referring to this period as one specially signalized 
by its rich development of prose. This is partly the 
cause and partly the effect of that general enlarge- 
ment which marks the period. This rapid growth of 
all that is English had its beginning as far back as 
the opening of the eighteenth century, greatly in- 
creased immediately after the close of the French 
Revolution, and it has scarcely yet reached its climax. 
It was not, in fact, until all earlier work had been 



102 ENGLISH PROSE. 

done in the way of formation, transition and final 
settlement, that this expansive process could begin 
and increase so tha-t, when it did begin, it advanced 
with such vigor and rapidity. No sooner had the 
basis been well laid, in 'Addison's time, than the 
superstructure rapidly arose. Everything was ready 
in state and social life, in public enterprise and 
general intelHgence, to foster and further the expan- 
sion. It is simply in keeping with the spirit of the 
age that literature should have taken on a new life, 
and equally natural that this life should express itself 
mainly in prose. All was astir. The old ways were 
too strait ibr the new movements, and growth is the 
law. " We are here in the middle of a tide of prose," 
wrtes Masson, "unexampled in any former time. 
What wealth, what variety, what versatility ! It is 
clearly an age in which the most important and 
effective work of the British mind devolved on Prose." 
Expression was the one business before the minds of 
the educated. Men must give currency and play to 
the thought that agitated them. 

This expansive character of the era in its prose is 
seen in nothing more than in the English Vocabulary. 
Words increased in rapid ratio in all departments. 
The area covered by our prose vocabulary in Bacon's 
time, and even in Addison's, was by no means equal 
to the needs of the writers in this new era. The de- 
mand arose and the supply came with it; and at the 
opening of the present century our language must 
have numbered seventy thousand words, as distinct 
from the fifty thousand of Elizabeth's time, and the 
one hundred thousand of to-day. Nor was this verbal 
expansion purely verbal. It was the actual result 



REPRESENTA TIVE PERIODS. 

of the rapid enlargement of the English mind and 
character. 

This expression also manifests itself in the growth 
of Periodical or Miscellaneous Prose, as well as in 
the rapid development of historical and impassioned 
writing. These last forms took such shape in English 
literature and became so prominent, that they may be 
said almost to have arisen in this fourth period, as the 
Novel began in the days of De Foe. 

English historical and oratorical prose is fairly 
identified with this era, while the periodical itself 
grows to still larger proportions. Here we find the 
great schools of Eriglish Historians, Forensic \Yriters 
and general Essayists. Each school covers a spacious 
period, wdiile Prose Fiction itself finds here its full- 
est expansion and expression in the writings of 
Dickens and his successors. The period, at its open- 
ing, was fertile and ever enlarging-, and the enlarge- 
ment still continues. 

(A.) Special Characteristics of this Prose Era, 

1. English in Form and Spirit. 

In no previous period was the prose more dis- 
tinctively native and idiomatic. Better English and 
more of it has never been written than in the Prose 
of this age. What has been said as to the specially 
modern character of the age w^ould confirm this state- 
ment. It was so modern because so English, drifting 
farther and farther away from foreign models. It is 
true that through the influence of Dr. fJohnson and 
his school, the Latin language had considerable swaj?" 
in the literary speech, but it was too strongly resisted 



104 ENGLISH PROSE. 

by the vast majority of writers to find general 
currency as in former periods. It is, also, true that 
iu the style of such writers as Gibbon the old Anglo- 
French mania threatened once again to overcome and 
impair the native style. Still, this was limited in 
its scope, as was the Latin. The inevitable trend of 
the age was English, and the great body of the best 
writers were in sympathy with the tendency. More- 
over, that special scientific study of the native tongue 
which began in the previous era in the persons of 
Swift and Johnson, now took much larger form, in 
obedience to the expansive spirit of the time. John- 
son's Dictionary was re-edited in better shape, while 
English scholars all around, were looking as never 
before, into the meaning of the words they were daily 
using. It was this very revival of interest in the 
study of English that led to that wonderful work now 
doing, in this department, which finds its best ex- 
pression in the publications of the Early English Text 
Society; in the New Philological English Dictionary; 
and in the widening of English courses in all lead- 
ing modern institutions. 

2. Literary Prose. 

We are discussing literary prose, and that only, 
and there is a special sense in which the prose of 
some eras deserves this title. It was so in the Forma- 
tive Period, and less so in the Transitional; it was so 
in the Settled Period, and is still more so in this of 
Expansion. If we close the period strictly at 1860, 
it is beyond question the most distinctively literary 
of the four. There is more substantial and perma- 
nent prose written in this century (1760-1860) on a 



REPRESENTA TIVE PERIODS. —EXP AN SI VE. 105 

purely literary basis, as distinct from that which 
is scientific, technical, or professional, than in any 
other era. The authors were men who understood 
literary art, its methods and laws; who w^rote in the 
love of their work and for beneficent ends; and who, 
whatever their personal gains might have been, 
sought above all else to express their best powers and 
elevate their fellows. 

This however, is to be confessed. At the end of 
this century, (18G0) the uprising of a different spirit 
is noticeable; the subjection of the literary spirit 
to what may be termed, the commercial, or unduly 
practical. English Literature in all its forms is fol- 
lowing the modern drift and is becoming secularized. 
Business-like prose is fast becoming the popular form. 
This means the degradation of prose from a purely 
literary basis to a mercenary one. No careful obser- 
ver can fail to note this; it has almost smothered our 
higher poetry out of being: it has materially impaired 
our prose. Here, as elsewhere, literature and philosophy 
affect each other. If we speak, however, of a definite 
century (1760-1860), of that, it may be stated, that 
the prose was literary and elevating. While enter- 
ing fully into the onward movements of the time, 
and making itself a medium for the expression of 
modern thought, it still kept itself isolated as a 
literary art, and high above the commercial level of 
the time. 

3. Natural Prose. 

This marks as nothing else the spirit of the prose 
before us, and is so prominent a characteristic as to 
make it questionable whether in any of the preceding 



108 ENGLISH PROSE, 

periods such naturalness had at all existed. Tt cer- 
tainly did not specially mark any of them. Despite 
occasional exceptions, as Bunyan and Swift, a simple 
spontaneous style of English Prose did not exist 
till late in the eighteenth century. It is not to be 
found in Hooker, Bacon, Milton or Dryden, and 
not in a marked manner, even in the writers 
of Queen Anne. They had other qualities, but 
not this. When we enter this period of expan- 
sion, the expansiveness is itself the first mark of 
its naturalness. All is free, informal and growthy, 
and cannot brook restrictions of any kind. The 
forms of prose now prevalent, the subjects chosen, 
and the spirit pervading them, all reveal a literary 
art founded on nature, and developed after a nat- 
ural manner. 

Euphuism is now a thing quite unknown, and this 
is the only period of which this can be said. There 
was no room for the false, conceited and forced. This 
naturalness, however, as all else that is praiseworthy, 
has its limit, and we soon notice a slight departure 
from it in the line of the formal and mechanical. 
Just as the purely literary type of this period is seen 
to give way more and more to the mercenary and 
commercial; so here, the natural gradually retires be- 
fore the approach of the conventional. This change 
is affected through the rise of modern criticism, tend- 
ing to the formal and precise at the expense of the 
creative. If we pass the limits of this period (1860) 
and enter the era now in progress, it is clearly mani- 
fest that English Prose is becoming less spontan- 
eous and more artificial. It is the era of literary 
criticism. 



REPRESENTA TIVE PERIOD S.—EXPA N STIVE. 107 

(B.) Helpful Agencies in this Era. 

1. hifliience of Germany. 

Allusion has often been made to the rare advan- 
tages involved in the geographical position of England 
relative to the Continent. It is a double advantage 
in the way of isolation and of contact; just far enough 
removed to escape incessant friction, and yet near 
enough to share in all desirable benefits. It is im- 
possible but that in thought and general culture there 
should be constant interchange of ideas, helpful or 
harmful, between Britain and the Continent. We 
have noticed this as to Italian influence under Chau- 
cer and Henry VIII, and as to French influence, also, 
at Chaucer's time in the shape of iSTorman-French; 
and, later, in the time of Transitional and Settled En- 
glish; while not altogether absent from the period be- 
fore us. We now speak of Germany in its relation to 
England. The influence was, to a degree, mutual. 
It is well known in what high regard Goldsmith was 
held by Goetlie, and it is also known that from the 
time of Goethe's entrance upon literary life in the last 
quarter of the eighteenth century no name has been 
more prominently before the German mind than 
Shakespeare's. It has occasioned more criticism than 
any other and modified the German drama more than 
any other. Despite the earnest attempts of Benedix 
and others to arrest this movement, it still continues, 
and the author of Hamlet is contending even now with 
the author of Faust for the Literary supremacy of the 
Fatherland. But we speak rather of German influ- 
ence upon English Literature and English Prose, an 



108 ENGLISH PROSE. 

infiaence dating from the era now before us, and ever 
widening in its area. 

Wit 1.1 the first classical period in German Letters 
(1190-1300) we have little, if anything, to do, inas- 
much as it occurred in our Middle-English Period, pre- 
vious to the Modern Era. 

The second classical epoch, however, (1760-1830) 
is almost coterminous with the epoch now^ under dis- 
cussion. Hence, its influence would be marked. In 
this era are found the most illustrious names in Ger- 
man Prose and Poetry; it being quite noticeable that 
the first authors, Goethe, Schiller and Lessing, were 
alike famous in each sphere. Taking into account 
the social and historic relations of the two nations, 
their interaction is vital and extensive. English 
authors were av*^are of the vast resources over the 
Channel, and went thither in numbers, to return with 
precious spoil. Coleridge, in 1798, is a member of the 
University at Gottingen, and deeply absorbed in Ger- 
man studies as related to modern thought and En- 
glish Letters. On his return to England, he devotes 
himself to the translation of portions of Schiller, and 
calls the special attention of British scholars to the 
prevailing philosophy of Germany. So as to Sir 
Walter Scott, poet and prose writer. He became 
thoroughly aroused by reason of the newly awakened 
interest in German literature prevalent at Edinburgh, 
and, following the example of others, translated into 
English some of the best productions of Goethe. 
Shelley, the poet, translated from Faust; while such 
authors as Southey, and Wordsworth, acknowledge 
and express something of the new impulse from over 
the sea. 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.—EXPAJSTSIVE 109 

If it be asked, how this influence was helpful to 
English thought and prose, it may be noted : 

(a) That the helpfulness lay in the mere union of 
these two types of mind, so accordant and yet so 
different. The bias of the one was toward the serious 
and practical ; that of the other was as strong toward 
the liberal and speculative. Literature and philoso- 
phy, alike, needed the combination. It was the 
quickening influence of that intellectual nation that 
England needed, and it was happily at hand just 
when this expansive era could receive it and use it. 
Whatever may be said as to the critical character of 
the German mind and authorship, it must be conceded 
that in its very criticism it is original and not imita- 
tive, stimulating and not repressive. More than at 
any period since, it was natural, suggestive and 
awakening. It was in Germany just what the native 
literature was at home. 

(b) The emotive, or impassioned character of this in- 
fluence on English Prose was an advantage. A cas- 
ual reference to history will reveal this element. 
One of the most conspicuous conflicts in German Let- 
ters was that represented by the names of Gottsched 
and Bodmer. 

Before the Thirty Years' War, Opitz and his fol- 
lowers had made a kind of beginning in the direction 
of a truly natural literature. Nearly a century after 
the close of the war, this work was reopened, through 
the special medium of literary unions. Here we meet 
the two historical schools of Leipsic and of Zurich, 
and we note that the one contended for the literature 
of form ; the other, for the literature of spirit and 
of power. The one, was in the interests of imitation 



110 ENGLISH PROSE. 

and of culture based on Gallic models; the other, on 
behalf of passion and inspiration based on natural 
feeling and English models. It was the old struggle 
of letter and spirit, and alike in Germany and in En- 
gland the victory was on the behalf of the natural. 

In speaking of the reciprocal influence of these two 
literatures, it is noteworthy that the German is always 
kept subordinate. In this respect there is a marked 
difference between this foreign influence and that of 
France in earlier days, in that the English was then 
subordinate. Whatever the effect of German Letters 
in England, our literature remained English in speech, 
personality and product. The process was assimila- 
tive, and not imitative. The question may justly be 
raised whether such German influence was altogether 
foreign, in that there is a common Teutonic lineage, 
and the forefathers of each people dwelt together 
upon the Elbe and Weser. The fond dream of Goethe 
as to a universal literature may not be within the 
possibility of realization. The prophecy of Milton, 
that the time is coming when the literatures of Ger- 
many, England and America will be one, is not 
altogether improbable. However this may be, the 
influence of Germany on English Prose in this period 
of prose expansion was a large and healthful one, 
and cannot be overlooked by any one who aims to 
give a true account of the agencies at work upon it. 

2. Political Agitation. 

Long before these agitations expressed themselves 
in the definite form of civil revolution in England, 
they were at work in the heart of Europe. The 
erratic Rousseau did not have reference to his own 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. — EXPANSIVE. Ill 

country, simply, when he wrote *'We are drawing 
near to a state of crisis, an age of revolution." Such 
a period of unrest was far too apparent in the gather- 
ing of its forces to be concealed; all Europe was 
practically concerned. As far back as the Roman 
Empire it began, and its course can be traced more 
or less clearly all along the line of Continental and 
of English History, It is the earnest struggle be- 
tween the old and the new, between royal prerogative 
and popular privilege. It is seen in the early 
struggle between Saxon and Norman; at the time, 
also, of the Great Charter wrested from the King at 
Eunnymede; in the Reformation at the time of 
Elizabeth; in the Great Rebellion of 1640, the age of 
Cromwell; and in the Revolution of 1688, when for 
the first time general and satisfactory results were 
reached in the line of civil and religious liberty. So 
was it in France, and so, across the Atlantic in our 
own country; and the question of that hour is still 
the question of Monarchical tyranny or Popular 
Rights. However important the first English Refor- 
mation may have been in its moral aspects, it may 
justly be said of this second one, that the issues it 
involved were more varied, practical and popular. 
It established the modern era of the rights of man. 
The point of special interest in our discussion, there- 
fore, is that this agitation had an immediate and 
lasting influence on English Prose, and most especi- 
ally at this period of its enlargement. Hence, we 
find the leading authors of the time acknowledging 
its power. Wordsworth was a traveler in France at 
the very time of the Revolution, and comes fully into 
sympathy with the general movement. Coleridge is 



112 ENGLISH PROSE. 

at Bristol, lecturing on politioy; Southey, radical and 
conservative in turn, wrote and spoke on the ques- 
tions of the hour; while th^ farther we go on in the 
history of this period through the times of De Quincey, 
Macauiay, and the British Orators, the more distinc- 
tive is this influence of civil matters iii literary 
methods. There are some special forms of helpful- 
ness in which this period of public agitation expressed 
itself, as related to the growth of English Prose. 

(a) In that England's attitude toward France was 
a formal protest against the further entrance and 
reign of Gallic influence. It was the home feeling 
opposed to foreign intrusion, not because it was 
foreign but because it was Gallic rather than 
Teutonic. England regarded France, at this time, 
as the most dangerous enemy to her peace and 
the peace of Europe. From the declaration of the war 
against Prussia in 1790, to the battle of Waterloo 
in 1815, the revolution was in progress. In 1793, war 
was declared against England, and the strife was 
maintained up to the Peace of Amiens in 1802. 
There could be no sympathy between the two 
peoples, politically or intellectually. The persistency 
with which England sought to humble France was 
the measure of that deep revulsion of feeling on 
the part of English authors against the future imita- 
tion of French models in literature. English Prose 
Writers above all, spoke and wrote against the 
principle, and the tide of Gallic influence was stayed. 

(b) English Prose was now greatly benefited in 
that the issues at stake were urgent and 'practical^ 
just such issues as belonged to the department of 
prose, rather than poetry. In all this struggle, there 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— EXPANSIVE. 113 

was a deep emotive elemeut finding its best expres- 
sion in that large volume of impassioned prose that 
appeared at the time. 

Authors wrote in practical ways for practical ends, 
and had but little time for paraphrase or indirect 
address. The Augustan Age of Settled English 
Prose has been called Popular. So it w^as, but in a far 
narrower sense from a literary point of view than is 
true of this period. That was the people's era, up to 
the limits of possibility in such an age, when the old 
restrictions in church and state were still to a degree 
influential. Now, all is widened, and healthfully free. 
The very word, people, has taken on a new meaning, 
and the literature responds to the enlarging process. 

(c) Benefit is found in the very changes them- 
selves. The spirit of inquiry was astir in all the 
departments of human thought. In Natural Science, 
the work of the Royal Society, founded in the days 
of Newton and of Boyle, was prosecuted with new 
zeal. In Theology, there were special discussions 
by Clarke, Warburton and Butler. In Adam Smith's 
"Wealth of Nations'' Social Science may be said to 
have taken its origin. It was followed by the " Frag- 
ments " of Bentham and, later, by the works of Malthus 
and Ricardo. In Political Science, Ferguson wrote 
a " History of Civil Society; " while Burke in various 
pamphlets gave his views on matters of State policy. 
In Jurisprudence, Blackstone was writing his fa- 
mous Commentary; Burke and Blair, Alison and Jef- 
freys were educating the people in the principles of 
{esthetic art; while Hume and Smollett, Robertson 
and Gi >l>on were penning their celebrated historical 
treatises. 



114 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Ill the sphere of mental and moral philosophy, 
this spirit of inquiry and expression was especially 
manifest. 

Hume wrote his " Inquiry concerning Human Un- 
derstanding." Fifteen years later, Reid followed 
with his " Inquiry into the Human Mind, " his labors 
being ably supplemented by Stewart and the Scottish 
School. From France, Locke's philosophy was re- 
turning with some foreign perversions to which were 
added the dangerous theories of Bolingbroke and 
Rosseau. Early in the century, Berkeley had given 
to the world his " Ideal Philosophy." Toward the 
middle of the century Hartley appeared with his 
"Philosophy of Association"; while near the close 
of the era were seen together the skeptical system of 
Gibbon, the rationalism of Paine, and the gross ma- 
terialism of Priestly. In the line of foreign philo- 
sophy, as bearing on British thought, there were 
two sets of influence. The one was started and 
maintained by the critical discussions of Kant; the 
other, by the Encyclopedists of France who began 
with doubt and ended with the bold denial of all 
moral truth. Catching its spirit from the teachings 
of Voltaire, it desired to construct a system fully in 
keeping with the reorganizing spirit of the time. 
All departments of thoughts were included. Born 
out of the bosom of the eighteenth century, it was 
to be its worthy representative as opposed to all that 
was past; while in and through it all, was the mani- 
fest preference of the sensual to the spiritual. In 
short, the discovery and diffusion of knowledge was 
the governing idea of the time; and just here we 
note the accordance of the era with the character of 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS. — EXPANSIVE. 115 

the prose. Nothing could have been more opportune. 
The prose received just what it needed, — expansion 
of idea and form ; and was enabled, while receiving 
this enlargement from the age, to give to it in time 
fitting literary expression. 

Literature and life were in fullest harmony; and, 
if in reading the stirring prose of this period we note 
the grounds of this characteristic, they are seen in 
that awakened spirit of free investigation prominent 
in all lands and ever diffusing itself into wider areas. 

3. In the Revival of First and Middle- English. 

This movement is not confined to the century 
before us. In Wyclif s time, authors were looking 
back to Alfred, as in the reign of James I., they were 
reverting to Wyclif Even Milton went so far as to 
write a history of Early England for the benefit of his 
time. Dryden, critical and classical as he was, ever 
referred his English readers to the pages of the old 
authors. Ever since the Baconian period, such a 
return to earlier eras is noteworthy. Neither the 
French influence of the Kestoration, nor the classical 
influence of the Augustan Age could altogether 
annul it; until in the age before us, it revived in 
fuller power than ever before. Especially manifest 
in the sphere of poetry as induced by the labors of 
Ritson, Percy and Warton, it was also seen in our 
prose. The age preceding had been one of formal 
prose and literary tendencies somewhat imitative. 
The demand was for a change in the line of natural- 
ness; and the people hailed with delight the return 
to what they regarded a more healthful time. Au- 
thors were now anxious as never before to reveal 



116 ENGLISH PROSE, 

the inherent independence of English Letters and 
thereby to lessen foreign influence. The age was to 
be English, out and out. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was not to be confined to civil matters and 
American life. English Prose Authors felt most 
deeply that just to the degree in which the era was 
expansive, impassioned and modern, just to that 
degree was there needed a style of prose that was 
English in spirit and purpose. 

General Inferences as to Periods. 

1. Comparative Limits of tlie Periods. 

If we compare the four representative eras of 
Modern-English Prose now mentioned with the First 
and Middle-English eras preceding, as to the time 
included in each, we note a suggestive descending 
series, — five centuries (673-1164), four centuries 
(1154-1561), and three centuries (1560-1860 + ). It 
is a good illustration of the inverse ratio of periods to 
product. As worthy as was the prose work of Alfred 
and Wyclif and others of their times, it was as noth- 
ing in comparison with that unexampled display of 
literary power manifested in the Modern Era. 

As far as the respective limits of the four modern 
eras themselves are concerned, it is sugge-stive that, 
as the first and fourth are included each in a century, 
the second and third alike are included in a half 
century. The longer periods are both in position 
and character by far the most important. 

2. Comparative Amount of Prose and Poetry. 

As far as the introductory eras are concerned, 
there is, in First-English, more extant poetry than 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— EXPANSIVE 117 

prose. In Middle-English, the. adjustment is more 
nearly equal, with the dilFerence in favor of prose. 

If we compare the four modern periods, they may 
be classified, as before, in pairs. The first and second, 
are in the main, periods of poetry; although in each, 
prose becomes more and more dominant, until at the 
close it prevails. 

The third and fourth periods are distinctively 
prose, the third being so to a very marked degree, 
while in the fourth there is a more equal adjustment 
of quantity; the period opening with a striking poetic 
revival, but ever developing, as it goes on, more and 
more prose tendency and product, till prose prevails. 

Taking the entire contents of the literature into 
account, there is a remarkable similarity as to the 
frequency of these two forms of literary expression. 
If a decision must be given, the superiority is un- 
doubtedly on the side of prose. 

3. Unity of Periods. 

The more we subject these periods to close exam- 
ination, the more evident will their historical con- 
tinuity appear. Amid great variety of epoch and 
characteristic, there will always appear the presence 
of a definite literary law; so that while the individ- 
uality of each epoch is preserved, their unity is just 
as manifest. It is this principle that confirms the 
view of most literary critics, that in English Prose, 
as in poetry, there is such a thing as sequence; a 
graduated historical progress throughout; on such 
wise that the line of it may be easily followed from 
its beginning in the sixteenth century to the present. 
No true interpretation of English Prose can be given 



118 ENGLISH PROSE. 

if such a principle is overlooked. It is for this 
reason mainly, that all periods are found more or 
less to overlap each other and defy any absolutely 
fixed distinction of dates and writings. We have 
presented these periods as Formative, Transitional, 
Settled and Expansive; representing respectively, 
the Elizabethan, Stuart, Augustan and Georgian eras. 
These classifications, however, can be approximate 
and relative only. Were this law of historical 
method and unity absent, the decisions would be 
formal and mechanical. No one can be dogmatic as 
to the precise limits of Elizabethan Prose, or tell us 
just when the Kestoration influences end. " In the 
literature of any people," says Morley, " we perceive 
under all contrasts of form produced by variable 
social influences, the one natural character from first 
to last." In no literature is this more apparent than 
in English. If the question be raised as to what this 
principle is that unifies our prose periods, it might 
be answered in Baconian phrase, — " to secure the 
glory of God and the relief of man's estate." It 
evinces the ever deepening purpose to express the 
content of the English mind for ethical and humane 
ends, to gather an amount of literary product together 
in which the moral and the practical shall be to- 
gether embodied and expressed. 

He who sees most clearly this unifying element of 
English Prose will be its best expositor to others. 

4. Progressive Development. 

Mr. Saintsbury, in his " Life of Dryden," insists 
upon calling attention to the comparative immaturity 
of Elizabethan Prose — what we have termed. Forma- 



REPRESENTATIVE PERIODS.— EXPANSIVE, 119 

tive. After stating that " Prose is the necessary 
vehicle of thought," he adds: "Up to Dryden's time 
no such generally available vehicle had been at- 
tempted or achieved by any one." He goes on to 
confirm this by a reference to the unnatural con- 
structions and phraseology of those Baconian days. 
Other critics speak in a similar strain. Though often 
stated in extreme form, there is historical truth in 
this view, and it is just what is to be expected. The 
very term — Formative — as applied to this first period 
implies this; and the more critically that style of 
prose is studied, the more manifest it is, that it marks 
a beginning of development rather than a completion. 
As soon as we pass to the second or Transitional 
period, despite all deviations, there is a progress 
visible. " A new prose," writes Brooke, " of greater 
force of thought and of a simpler style than the 
Elizabethan, arose." Whatever it was or was not, it 
was more varied and flexible than any previous form. 
When we pass to the Settled and Expansive periods, 
this gradual growth of our prose is so apparent as to 
need no exposition. It is, in fact, the special mark 
of the two eras, and seems more and more to exhibit 
that central law of unity already noted. It was 
because there was unity that the progress was conse- 
cutive and unbroken, while this in -turn intensified 
the unity itself 

5. Tlie Period and the Writer. 

As a rule, the respective writers of English Prose 
at all eminent as models, were in vital sympathy 
with the age in which they lived and wrote. What- 
ever the general bearing of their authorship might 



120 ENGLISH PROSE. 

be, they had a special meaning at and for the time. 
It was on this principle that Bacon wrote his Essays; 
Hooker, his Polity ; Milton, hi-s political, ecclesiastical 
and social treatises; Swift, his partisan pamphlets; 
Addison, his Spectator; and the later British Essayists, 
their various works. They not only "held the mirror 
up to nature," but, as the men of Issachar, " they 
had understanding of their times." They gave to the 
"body of the time its form and pressure." They and 
their respective periods exercised mutual influence 
upon each other, not to the extent, indeed, which 
Mr. Taine would hold in defense of his special theory, 
but still to an important extent, so as to mark them 
as in one age and not in another. They were suffi- 
ciently in sympathy with their time to represent it 
and meet its needs ; and yet, not so fully subjected to 
it as to make their prose local and narrow in its 
range. It is not a little remarkable that such works 
as Bacon's "Advancement of Learning," and Addi- 
son's " Spectator" are still so largely read, despite 
their local occasion and purport. They wrote for 
their age, mainly, and, yet, for other times, also. 

So vital is this relation of writer to epoch, that it 
is difficult to co-nceive how Hooker could have written 
in any other age than the Formative one; or Dryden 
in any other than than the Transitional; or Johnson 
in any other than the Settled; or Macaulay in any 
other than the Expansive. There is an historical 
and a logical fitness in all this, and the classification 
of eras is a virtual classification of writers. It would 
scarcely be too much to add that the principle of 
gradual progress is apparent even here, so that 
Macaulay may be said to have been the exponent 



REPRESENTA TIVE PERIODS.— -EXPA NSTIVE. 121 

of English Prose in bis age, more fully than is true 
of* any previous author in any particular age that he 
represented. Moreover, in the proportion in which 
a v^riter is leading and eminent, in that proportion, 
precisely, may he be said to be the true exponent 
of the literary character of his time. 



PART SECOND. 



PART SECOND. 

REPRESENTATIVE LITERARY 
FORMS. 



Literary Forms. 

As indicated in the Preface, the term, literary^ is 
emphatic throughout the present treatise as distinct 
from any other terms with vvhich it may be con- 
founded. By Forms, in this connection, is meant 
therefore, exclusively. Literary Forms as distinct 
from any other kinds of English Prose possible to 
an author, — scientific, speculative, technical. Prose 
treatises on science or metaphysics, or any of the 
professional departments, would thus be excluded 
from the strictly literary sphere, and find their place 
more fittingly in the narrower area of the technical 
and special. What has been generally termed, the 
department of Belles Lettres in the widest and high- 
est sense of the term covers the main scope of what 
is here intended, and distinguishes these forms from 
those which belong to other provinces. 

The Word, Forms. 

In the province of rhetorical and literary discussion, 
this word is used as synonymous with, modes, and 
may be so interpreted in the discussion before us. 



126 ENGLISH PROSE, 

They are the modes or tvays in which literary art 
expresses itself and, as to our purpose, in the depart- 
ment of prose. Nor is the word, mode^ to be so em- 
phasized here as to make it sharply distinct from 
giibject matter, and thus reduce literary expression 
to a mere mechanism. It is the expression of the 
inner mind of the writer, and, though external, takes 
its character from that which is beneath and behind 
it. This part of our subject will therefore benotJhing 
more nor less than a presentation in classified order 
of those different divisions of English Prose which 
we find illustrated in English as in ail literatures. It 
may here be stated, that in the subsequent discussion 
of English Prose Style, as illustrated in our prose 
authors, this study of Prose Forms will be seen to 
have been essential. 

Methods of Classification of Forms. 

If we classify by periods only, then we note such 
historical forms as, — The Elizabethan, Stuart, Augus- 
tan, and Georgian; or using the divisions adopted, 
Formative, Transitional, Settled, and Expansive 
Forms. 

If we classify by Authors only, there would be, — 
Baconian, Addisonian, Johnsonian Forms, and so on, 
throughout the list of leading writers. 

If by quality of writing, or style proper, there follow 
such forms as, — the Clear, the Forcible, the Elegant, 
the Suggestive. 

If by process and the object merely, we have, — The 
Didactic, Logical, Emotional, and Persuasive Forms. 
These are not only possible classifications, but have 
in turn been adopted and applied by literary critics; 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS. 127 

and there is in each of them some element of worth 
as indicating a method of study. The difficulty is 
that any one of them by itself is too restrictive 
and mechanical — not wide enough to embrace those 
great divisions of prose expression in which the au- 
thor can freely move. We shall submit a classifica- 
tion essentially including all the principles thus far 
mentioned, and, as Ave believe, quite including all 
representative forms thus far illustrated in our literary 
history. 

The one exclusive principle of the classification 
we need not state, inasmuch as there is none suffi- 
ciently broad. In the divisions given, however, 
special reference will be made to process, quality^ and 
ohject, as giving the main basis for a full statement 
of the Forms of Literary Prose. 

The true classification is as follows: 

I. — Historical or Narrative Prose. 

II. — Poetic (or Descriptive) Prose. 
III. — Philosophical or Didactic Prose. 
IV. — Oratorical or Impassioned Prose. 

V. — Miscellaneous or Periodical Prose. 

It will be our purpose to discuss each of these in 
the order stated, making the discussion brief and yet 
sufficiently full to give an intelligent understanding 
of the forms themselves and as they are related to 
the subjects that precede and follow. 



CHAPTER I. 
HISTOKICAL OE NAEBATIVE PKOSE. 

Contents. 

This important division of English Prose may- 
be said to include, strictly, History Proper and 
Biography. 

What are termed — Annals or Chronicles, are the 
essential basis or material of this department, but in 
the literary sense of the term, — Historical Prose, — do 
not fall legitimately under it. As mere collections 
of dates, facts and incidents, they have no rhetori- 
cal character v^hatever, and are simply means to the 
production of prose proper. They sustain the same 
relation to History that boards and bricks do to a 
building. They must be put into symmetrical form and 
position. Even when such Annals take so extensive 
a form as in " The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle " or in the 
*' Outlines of Universal History," they are not entitled 
to the name and rank of History Proper, in that the 
material is not presented in consecutive or narrative 
form, but simply as an accumulation of facts without 
comment or enlargement. 

So, as to Memoirs: At times, they assume a some- 
what lengthened form, and combine the national with 
the personal element, as in *' The Memoirs of the Times 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— HISTORICAL. 129 

of George IV.," by Queen Caroline; or " The Historical 
Memoirs of the Church of France," by Butler. Still, 
they are ^lemoirs, and not connected History with a 
rhetorical order and development of thought. 

Memoirs are related to Biography as Annals are to 
History, constituting its material. They are neces- 
sarily fragmentary and brief, and serve their purpose 
as ministrant to the forms of prose proper. Hence, 
they liave no strictly literary character, and do not 
fall within the limits of our discussion. They are 
personal annals, and as biography is inferior to His- 
tory Proper, Memoirs are inferior, even as material, 
to Annals proper. 

There is a popular and vague use of the words, 
Annals and Memoirs; as in MacDonald's " Annals of a 
Quiet Neighborhood"; and Pope's "Memoirs of Martin 
Scriblerus." With this use of the terms, however, 
we have nothing, at present, to do. In the depart- 
ment of Fiction and Satire and Humorous Discourse, 
it is in their wider and accommodating sense that such 
technical terms are generally used. 

Historical Prose, as literary, may be Said to include, 
therefore, the two classes specified, Biography and 
History Proper. 

BIOGRAPHY. 

This is personal history, — the record or account of 
human life as expressed in the individual rather than 
in the nation or race. It is in the strictest sense 
a distinctive form of historical prose, in that it is 
continuous, logically progressive, and unlike the me- 
moirs, a complete presentation of the subject in hand. 
As to its further relation to History Proper, it differs 



130 ENGLISH PROSE. 

mainly as to its comparative brevity. This limitation 
arises uatnraliy from its personal character. In the 
limits assigned it, however, it is unique and symme- 
trical as a form. 

From these two features, personality and brevity, 
are derived the two main matters noteworthy re- 
garding Biography, its Interest and Clearness. It 
has to the reader all the attraction of life-like reality 
as to its subject matter, and of literary simplicity as 
to its expression. Being the history of a person, it 
adds to the historical something of present vividness; 
and being brief, it seldom wearies or perplexes. So 
long as Pope's statement holds good that "The prop- 
er study of mankind is man," so long will Biog- 
raphy fill a large place in the general reading of 
the educated public. It is almost needless to state 
that Autobiography is a life written by the author 
himself. 

Remarks. 

(a) There are many works which are biographical 
in character, and yet are not strictly Biographies. 
They have the personal element in them as distinc- 
tive, and yet so in connection with other elements, 
historical and general, that the special form is some- 
what obscured. Such books as Field's "Yesterday 
with Authors," or Knight's " Half Hours with Au- 
thors," are of this character. They embrace a series 
of authors, and present a kind of combination of 
literary history and biography. 

We are becoming familiar, in our day, with the 
phrase, " Life and Times," of which Masson, in his 
" Biography of Milton," has given us the finest ex- 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— FHSTORICAL. 131 

ample in English Prose. In audi volumes, the author 
is not careful to restrict iiimself to the poet or prose 
writer whom he is discussing, but introduces us to 
the history of his age, the peculiar surroundings in 
which his youth and later years were passed, and 
shows us the close relations of the man to his 
circumstances. 

(b) This biographical method of composition is 
applied, at times, to subjects oilier than persons, — to 
states and nations in their individual character as 
political bodies marked, respectively, by well defined 
features. They are viewed as personalities, and so 
presented. The origin, progress, and varied expres- 
sions of their civic life are given, as in the case of 
the individual life. Such a series as " The American 
Commonwealths " is a good example of this peculiar 
phase of historical writing. Such forms may be said 
to mark the line of union between biography proper 
and history proper, and to have the main element 
of each. 

(c) Prominence in Bfodern Times. 

No careful observer of the growth and variations 
of literary prose product will fail to note the rapid 
increase of biographies and biographical writing. Tn 
no particular is this more apparent than in the large 
number of serial or collective biographies found in 
our libraries. Such as the following will illustrate: 

Johnson's "• Lives of the Poets," Strickland's 
** Queens of England," Thackeray's " FoiTr Georges," 
Thackeray's '' English Humorists," Higginson^s " En- 
glish Statesmen," Morris' " American Statesmen," 
Morley's "English iMen of Letters Series," Warner's 
"American Men of Letters Series." 



132 ENGLISH PROSE. 

These examples will suffice to show the increasing 
Dumber, interest and value of these serials, and their 
tendency to assume the form of lives written by 
various authors under the control of a general 
editor. 

If in addition to these collected biographies, the 
references be to separate treatises, the number is sim- 
ply beyond recital, having representative expression 
in such works as: 

Bos well's "Johnson," Lockhart's "Scott," Masson's 
" Milton," Stanleys's " Arnold," Forster's " Dickens," 
Trevelyan's " Macaulay," Froude's " Carlyle." 

(d) lAfe and Authorship. 

So vital is the relation of an author's personal 
character and history to his literary character as a 
writer, that in the great majority of cases, certainly, 
the one must be known before the other can fully be. 
Masson, in his "British Novelists," refers to Words- 
worth as objecting to the mingling of the biography 
of an author with the reading and study of his work. 
In this opinion he opposes the Lake poet, and justly. 
Wordsworth himself, is a conspicuous example in 
point. 

Some authors indeed, as some men in all spheres, 
seem to be one thing, and express themselves as 
another; but these are few. 

No student of our literature can afford to open 
the pages of an English author of note, until he has 
made himself thoroughly conversant with the life 
and times of the author. This is especially impor- 
tant in prose discourse, in that poetry lies mor eout- 
side of ordinary thought and life, and may be to a 
great extent quite independent of periods and persons. 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— HISTORICAL. 133 

HISTORY PROPER— HISTORICAL PROSE. 

Meaning. 

The most specific idea which this term indicates is 
expressed in such words as, — civil, political, constitu- 
tional. Hume's " History of England," Hallam's 
" Constitutional History," Bancroft's " History of the 
United States," are examples of this application. 
When not otherwise defined, the word means, a 
record of the founding and growth of nations; a 
narration or relation of the political life of states and 
empires. "An account of facts, particularly of facts 
respecting nations and states" is the definition given 
by Webster, and is the commonly received meaning. 

There is, however, a wider meaning which has to 
do more with the etymological idea of the word as a 
narrative of events, or statement of facts, than wiliJi 
the subject matter involved, as civil or otherwise. 
In this sense, the term may be applied to any depart- 
ment of knowledge embodied in the form of narrative 
or recital, rather than in any one of the other pos- 
sible forms that might be used. Hence, w^e have the 
following: 

History of Literature, such as, Hallam's. 
History of Poetry, such as, Warton's. 
History of Philosophy, such as, Lewes'. 
History of the English Language, such as, Marsh's. 
Ecclesiastical History', such as, Mosheim's. 
History of Doctrine, such as, Shedd's, etc. 

In the use of this wider meaning, we are introduced 
to a spacious area of historical prose, and the re- 



134 ENGLISH PROSE. 

lations between the narrative form of discourse and 
all other forms, become apparent. 

It is, however, in the narrower sense, as synony- 
mous with the phrase, Civil or Political History, that 
the term is mainly employed. Even as thus defined 
and limited, the province it covers is a broad and 
inviting one, and full of special interest to the student 
of Letters and of English Prose. 

(A.) Characteristics of Historical Prose. 

1. Accuracy of Statement. 

There must be evident throughout, a conscientious 
loyalty to the truth; a strict fidelity in the record of 
facts. However much personal opinion may vary, 
testiraon}^ is to be impartial. The deductions which 
the historian may draw from facts submitted to him 
are one thing and open to difi*erence of view; — the 
facts themselves are not his, but belong to the com- 
mon stock of truth, and must be given as they are, 
and not otherwise. History, as its very etymology 
implies, is a recital of past events, and not the 
origination of new facts. 

2. Clearness of Statement. 

This is a strictly literary characteristic and, as 
such, has to do with the form of expression as plain 
or obscure, rather than with its inherent quality as 
true or false. 

As clearness may be said to be the first quality of 
writing, -so there is no province of prose in which it 
is more needful than in narration. To the extent in 



REPRESENTATIVE FORM^.—HISTORICAL. 135 

vv^hich history is doubtful as to meaning, it is un- 
•eadable, and fails of its prime end. 

It is for this reason that most of our leading his- 
torians have paid special attention to the subject of 
expression and method in their narratives; and, in 
order to be understood, have introduced, a great 
degree of incident, figure, and poetic phrase. This 
is noteworthy in all readable historians, such as, 
Macaulay and Motley. 

3. Tlniiy and Order of Statement. 

History has often been said to assume the same 
rank in prose discourse that the epic does in poetry. 
Each is essentially narrative, and in each, the law 
of unity may be said to be fundamental. This im- 
plies and demands that in every separate narrative 
of events there shall be a central, dominant event, 
and that around this as central, all else shall be 
grouped in the order of relative worth. This is a 
logical as well as rhetorical feature, and lifts the 
whole department of narrative prose out of the plane 
of tlie mere recital of events to the higher plane of 
the causal connection of events. 

Tt is simply the general law of method in discourse 
applied to history. 

The application of this principle is especially diffi- 
cult in complex narrative, as in the history of a na- 
tion in all its periods and variations of life. Hence," 
the small number of histories of such a country as 
England, in which the narrator has attempted to 
cover the entire ground; and the increasingly large 
number of those which confine themselves to a separ- 



136 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ate epoch or period, as Froude, Macaulay, Stanhope, 
Leckey and Clarendon. 

E\^en when the fuller method is applied, as by 
Knight and Greene, the result is rather a collection 
of the histories of the several epochs in one aggre- 
gate than a separate history by itself The applica- 
tion of this principle of unity in any sphere is as diffi- 
cult as it is important. To know precisely what is 
the central event or class of events, to adjust them 
in right relations to each other, and to know the 
definite border line between minute detail and 
generalization, is no small matter, and marks the 
master. 

4. Delineation. 

This has to do with both characters and events. 
It reveals the presence of the biographical element in 
history and, als,©, its relation as a literary form to 
other forms, as, the descriptive. As the word implies 
it draws tlie lines around the event or person. It is 
graphic, picturesque and pictorial, and seems to lend 
to the didactic element of historical prose something 
of that interest which belongs to the less serious 
forms of prose expression. Dr. Lord in his discussion 
of the great Historical Characters from Charlemagne 
down, presents a fine example of this delineative 
feature. So in Prescott, Motley, Headley, Freeman 
and Macaulay. The historian who is able to hold 
it within due limits, and to make it subservient to 
the great end of history as instructive, proves 
thereby his genius for narrative discourse in its 
best forms. There is such a faculty as the Historic 
Imagination. 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— HISTORICAL. 137 



5. Simplicity of Statement 

It is safe to say that narration is the simplest as it 
is about the earliest form of expression in prose. It is 
common to all ages, classes and peoples. It is the 
natural form of human utterance — a telling of the 
story or fact with unconscious art. This simplicity is 
to be preserved in all relations. When history be- 
comes so complex or prosaic as to conceal or impair 
it, in so far it departs from its normal type. It is in 
its primary conception " a plain unvarnished tale," a 
speaking '' right on," and must be devoid of artifice 
and studied attempt at display. 

6. Gravity — Moral and Literary. 

History is essentially a dignified form of discourse. 
Its object is instruction rather than entertainment. 
Its subject matter is fact, and its general procedure 
orderly and serious. Anything in the line of the 
burlesque, flippant and common is excluded. The 
historian owes it to himself and his theme, to keep 
aloof from all that is belittling, and to regard him- 
self as an appointed teacher of men. Judgment 
should be apparent everywhere, as superior to fancy or 
frivolity. Even in a literary point of view as to dic- 
tion, figure and general manner, the author must rise 
above all temptations to exceptional methods, and 
keep in line with the higher order of minds. Facts 
are mighty and important as facts, and need a care- 
ful handling. History, as a body of prose, is well 
preserving its character in this particular. One of its 
main benefits to the student and reader is in this di- 
rection. Its effect is elevating and ethical. For this 



138 ENGLISH PROSE. 

reason, among others, it might well be substituted by 
young men for promiscuous fiction as the staple of 
their early reading. 

(B.) Methods of Historical Prose 

1. Tlie Chronological, 

This is essentially historical in that the element of 
time is prominent. It presents events in temporal 
succession. More than this, it is purely and only 
historical. It includes no other feature, as the de- 
scriptive, reflective or logical. It is a mere recita- 
tion of facts, without enlargement or inference. 

It is the first and simplest method of historical 
prose. As stated, its extreme form is found in the 
works of Annalists and Chroniclers, in Outlines and 
Schemes. Apart from this, however, it is expressed 
as veritable literary history in those authors who pre- 
sent facts in a connected form, and yet not suffi- 
ciently so to mark their inner bond of relation or to 
furnish an historical manner. Such writers always 
follow the centuries in regular order, and regard any 
deviation therefrom as contrary to law. Such an his- 
torian as Hume follows, in the main, this chronolog- 
ical order, and is, so far, inferior to most of those who 
succeed him as English Historians. 

2. The Logical or Causal 

This is a more recent and a higher order of narra- 
tive prose, and is adopted by all the leading histo- 
rians of modern times. 

There is such a thing as, — The Philosophy of His- 
tory. Facts, are followed by principles reached 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— HISTORICAL. 139 

through them. Generalization, succeeds the mere 
recital of events. Caases and effects, are discussed 
in their relations; and in and through the historical 
records are seen the laws that control thera. 

This is a method in no sense contradictory or op- 
posed to the other. It is simply higher and broader. 
It is based on the other and is logically dependent 
on it. Fronde differs from Hume not in decrying 
facts, but in subjecting them to ideas and principles. 
It will be clear at once that this is the most difficult 
method, and yet the more recompensing, It indi- 
cates and develops the ability of the historian while, 
also, affording to the student of historical prose a 
more satisfactory body of literature for reference and 
reading. 

Suggestions. 

(a) The Relations of History. 

From what has already been stated, some of these 
relationships are apparent, as, to Description, Biog- 
raphy, and in the higher forms of historical writing, 
to Philosophy and Logic. 

We have alluded to the epic as based on the nar- 
rative. This is true to a large extent in the Drama 
as involving plot and story. There is a very distinct 
dramatic element in history as there is the historical 
element in the drama. The Historical Plays of 
Shakespeare are examples in point. 

Narrative poetry is so called because of this special 
element in it. 

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has poetry as well as 
prose in it. The Metrical Chronicle is not without 
iVequjut example. 



140 ENGLISH PROSE, 

Many of the older writers, such as, Lydgate, 
Drayton and others, wrote their histories in poetic 
form. 

This narrative element is, also, found very largely 
in Fiction. This is so marked as to give us a distinct 
order of novel called, The Historical, as in Scott, and 
Muhlbach. It is difficult, if not impossible, in much 
of our fiction to separate the narrative from the 
romantic element. 

The relation of History to Geography is close, 
especially in that form of Geography called Political. 
The historian, to be successful, must not only be con- 
versant with geographical data, but must know the 
close connection of places and events and how the 
course of history is materially determined by the 
courses of mountains and rivers; by race, climate and 
locality. In fine, the scope of historical discourse is 
so broad that it may be said to touch nearly every 
main department of human interest, government and 
society, morals and industries, life and thought. This 
again, adds to its moral dignity and worth. 

(b) Effect of Historical Reading on Style. 

if, as has been stated, simplicity and naturalness, 
unity and clearness, are characteristics of this species 
of writing when properly exhibited, then it follows, 
that every student of English Style must be conver- 
yant with it. It is not only a safe model and profit- 
able to consult, but is not optional with the ambi- 
tious composer to neglect it. His own interests make 
it necessary. To recount a narrative, or state con- 
nected facts in a plain and pleasing manner, is a high 
literary art; and, when expressed, as it is, in our best 
historical prose, should be ever consulted by the 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS. — HISTORICAL. 141 

writer. Tt is for this reason that literary biography 
reveals the fact that some of the most mature and 
eminent English writers were in the habit, late in 
life, of refreshing and simplifying their style by fre- 
quent resort to such models. 

It is well known how Thucydides, in his country 
and time, served as a model in this respect. Nothing 
will more eifectually save a writer from the natural 
tendency to conceited and extravagant forms of ex- 
pression, than a continual contact with our best nar- 
rative discourse. 

(c) Elements of Interest. 

Tlie main feature of interest here is the same as in 
Biography, the personal one. Although not so prom- 
inent or exclusive as there, it is still sufficiently so to 
give this life-like character to the narrative, which 
makes it impressive and pleasing. History is more 
than a connected record of facts and events, dates 
and incidents. It is a record oi human life as mani- 
fested in the aggregate, — in society and nation,- — an 
account of the way in which the world acts under all 
possible variety of circumstances. It is, in a real 
sense, an enlarged biography, and gains in breadth 
what it loses in specific reference. 

\i may be said to be one of the proofs of this, and 
one of the marks of modern historical treatment, that 
this element of individuality is made increasingly 
distinct. Hence, we have such works as, — Green's 
History of the English People as distinct from En- 
gland, and McMaster's History of the People of the 
United States, rather than of the States them- 
selves. It is now noticeable that historians are 
passing more and more from the abstract to the 



142 ENGLISH PROSE. 

concrete; from the impersonal to the personal; from 
the historical, pure and simple, to the biographical 
also. These narratives are becoming more and more 
practical and helpful in their instruction. Detailed 
accounts of wars and civil politics give place to the 
record of the common life of the people, their habits 
and industries, their domestic, social and moral econ- 
omy; in fact, their personal character as expressed in 
every day forms. This, moreover, is all in the line 
of the very ideal of history as a record of the past 
life of nations for the guidance of present peoples. 

In addition to this personal element as conducive 
to interest, there may be noticed others such as, the 
pleasure of noting i\iQ 'progressive life of nations; the 
trium'pli of right over wrong; the dramatic cast of 
narrative divscourse as it goes on from scene to scene 
towards its consummation; and above all, the spacious 
and imposing scale on which history moves as a suc- 
cessive and accurate record of the world's career. It 
thus resembles the epic, not only in its narrative 
feature, but also in its moral sublimity and scope. 



CHAPTER II. 
DESCRIPTIVE OR POETIC PROSE. 

The Word— Descriptive. 

This term is here used as distinct from the terra, 
narrative, and as applicable to that kind of prose 
which sets forth objects, located in space, rather than 
events occurring in time. It conceives of its object 
as fixed in definite position, and not as changing its 
form through successive eras. 

It may, also, be termed descriptive in the sense of 
graphic, poetic, or pictorial. It is that order of En- 
glish Prose which is imaginative, rather than histori- 
cal. It is representative rather than presentative, 
and has to do with symbols and figurative forms, as 
well as with facts. In the higher tlieraes and forms 
of descriptive writing, such as, " The Character of 
Milton," or of English Poetry, the presence of the im- 
agination is especially seen in its constructive power. 
In such cases, the idea to be set forth must have 
place and body given it as if it were a visible, tangi- 
ble thing. The writer must see it, and so present it 
through pictorial emblems that the reader may see 
it with equal distinctness. The readers must be made 
spectators of the scene presented as in many of the 
descriptions of Bulwer and Dickens. In narrative 



14.4 ENGLISH PROSE. 

writing, it is the historic imagination that is at work. 
Here, it is the poetic imagination in its normal and 
healthful action as the imaging faciiltj. Hence it is, 
that in poetry, as distinct fi'om prose, this element 
largely enters, as in dramatic and pastoral forms, and 
in that special form of poetry which, by way of dis- 
tinction, is termed — descriptive. 

Benefit of Descriptive Prose to Style. 

As in narrative prose, the main benefits to the 
reader and student are naturalness and simplicity; 
here they are vividness and vigor. It is because 
these qualities of style are so rare, even among those 
possessed of all the others, that such an order of prose 
discourse is invaluable. No student of expression 
can devote himself either to the frequent production 
or consulting of such writing and not become there- 
by the master of a lucid, fluent and animated style. 
Ail is life-like. The idea is made to stand forth on 
the page as the picture on the canvas, its outlines 
are so clear that from them one can easily discern the 
entire content of the scene or object. It is one of 
the most healthful indications of modern times in the 
department of literary art that the rigid and some- 
what lifeless methods of the older schools are giving 
gradual place to a more flexible and vivacious style. 
Nothing is more marked in the progressive history 
of English Prose than in the steady advance it makes 
in this direction, whereby the comparatively unbend- 
ing forms of Hooker and Dryden give way at length 
to the more pliant prose of Addison, and this, in turn, 
to the still more natural prose of the Georgian Age. 
This is all in the line of a real return to the true in 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— DESCRIPTIVE. 145 

prose composition in that description, as narration, is 
a normal mode of mental expression, and must find 
scope and use just to the degree in which freedom 
takes the place of constraint, and artifice yields to art. 

The Mental Element in Descriptive Prose. 

There is a philosophical law that applies here, — 
that we can expect to find no more in the effect than 
the cause; that what we do find in the effect is due 
to the power resident in the cause. Clear expres- 
sion reveals clear thinking. A high order of de- 
scriptive prose argues a high order of intellectual in- 
sight The mental ability of the one determines that 
of the other. Vivid description, as given us in the 
best historians and novelists of England, means vivid 
conception. This mental power is especially manifest 
in the imagination as a faculty of forecasting and 
combining. 

Descriptive power is not, indeed, the highest order 
of power, since the imaging faculty cannot be said to 
rank above the others. Some of our prose writers 
excel in this only, thus revealing the fact that im- 
aginative power may exist in special excellence when 
other powers are feebly expressed. The ratio at 
times seems to be inverse. In its proper place and 
function, however, it is a mental faculty of high 
order, and when ably expressed in literary product 
marks a good degree of personal ability. 

In this respect, those writers succeed the best who 
cultivate and apply their descriptive powers, not as 
an isolated form of mental activity, but as vitally re- 
lated to all the other essential powers of the mind. 
This is the sufficient explanation of the fact, that de- 



146 ENGLISH PROSE. 

sciiptive writing is so often more healthful and suc- 
cessful in prose than in poetry, while in the region 
of prose itself, historical descriptions are often the 
best, in that the historic imagination controls the 
poetic. 

Province of Descriptive Prose. 

The area covered by descriptive prose is similar 
to that covered by the narrative form. These two 
divisions of prose so happily combine, and are as 
a matter of fact so frequently connected, that the 
phrases, — historical description, or descriptive narra- 
tion, — have become current. In history, travels and 
biography, the descriptive element is always more or 
less present; while in the special department of ex- 
perimental teaching it is the controlling form. "De- 
scription," says Bain, "is involved in all the other 
kinds of composition." 

There are, however, two special forms of prose dis- 
course in which this order of writing is clearly prom- 
inent. — Poetical Prose and Prose Fiction. 

POETICAL PROSE. 

As the phrase indicates, this is an order of prose 
that seems to lie on the border line between prose 
proper and poetry — a form which, though not met- 
rical, has a larger amount than usual of rhythm and 
accentual regularity in it. 

It means, imaginative or symbolic prose — what 
we are here discussing as descriptive. The terms 
descriptive, and poetical, are here quite interchange- 
able in that the term poetical is used as synonymous 
with the term pictorial. An important suggestion at 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— DESCRIPTIVE. 147 

this point is, that the term prose when used without 
definition or explanation, means an unimaginative, 
unpoetical order of writing. It means just what 
the word prose (prorsus) etymologically means, — a 
straightforward, direct method as distinct from one 
more or less indirect. The original idea of prose has 
reference to its various forms other than the imagina- 
tive form. 

In so far, therefore, as prose expression tends to the 
poetic, it departs from its primal law. Historically 
viewed, we shall note that of the four or five forms of 
prose that are to come before us, the one we are now 
discussing is the only one that has swerved from the 
old idea; just as in didactic poetry or prose poetry we 
mark the one exception in that sphere among all the 
existing forms of verse. Exceptional as it is, how- 
ever, this species of prose is natural, well established, 
widely current, and, in common with all descriptive 
writing, manifestly on the increase. It marks a re- 
action from that strong didactic tendency prominent 
in prose as such, and urges the cultivation of a style 
somewhat freer and bolder. Such prose writers as 
Sir Philip Sydney in his " Arcadia," or Jeremy Taylor 
in his " Holy Living and Dying," or Kuskin in his 
" Stones of Venice," or Irving in his " Sketch Book," 
are pertinent examples of this peculiar order of prose. 
It is scarcely correct to call such specimens, as most 
critics do, examples of a mediate or third form of 
writing, one between prose and poetry. It is dis- 
tinctively a prose form in that it is unmetrical, 
although not so fully such a form in that the 
poetical element is unusually present. In the Old 
Testament Scriptures, among what are termed The 



148 ENGLISH PROSE, 

Poetical Books, there is ample illustration of this 
kind of descriptive writing, so germane to the Ori- 
ental mind. 

PROSE FICTION. 

In this species of prose is found one of the most 
distinctive provinces of descriptive writing, whether 
Ave view it in its specific character as descriptive, or 
in its relations to other forms. It demands, therefore, 
a somewhat full discussion. 

The Phrase— Prose Fiction. 

Critics and authors have quarreled not a little over 
the propriety of this phraseology ; the poin t at issue 
being whether Fiction belongs, in truth, to the sphere 
of prose or poetry. 

As far as the phrase which has been accepted goes, 
the concession is made to those who claim that it 
finds its place in prose. If we define the term fiction 
etyraologically, as something feigned, imaged or de- 
picted in symbol, or if we define it, as generally done, 
as that form of discourse in which truth is set forth 
through incidents and media invented at the time, 
the result is the same, and we have nothing more nor 
I ess than a kind of poetic-prose, prose set forth in nnreal 
f )rms, supposed for the time to be real. Despite this 
concession, however, the war still wages. Minto, in 
his "Manual,"' writes: "In excluding Romance or 
Fiction from a Manual of Prose Literature, I follow 
a division suggested by the late Professor Moir. 
Komance has a closer afiinity with Poetry than with 



REPRESENTA TIVE FORMS— DESCRIPTIVE. 149 

Prose: it is cousin to Prose, but sister to Poetry. It 
lias the Prose features, but the Poetical spirit." 
Minto has done unwisely here in f'oJJouii'g Moir. 
The error lies in the strange confusion of adjective 
and noun — poetic and Poetry. The error is so vital 
as to detract sensibly from the merits of tlie "Man- 
ual." If the reader will turn to Minto's discussion 
of Daniel De Foe, the first strictly English Nov- 
elist, he will note how the author unconsciously de- 
parts from the suggestion of Moir and assumes safer 
ground. 

Robinson Crusoe is essentially poetic. It is not a 
poem, or poetry. 

Mr. Masson, on the other hand, in his " British 
Novelists" thus writes: "If we adopt the common 
division of literature, into History, Philosophical Lit- 
erature and Poetry, or the Literature of the Imag- 
ination, then the Novel or the Prose Fiction, as the 
name itself indicates, belongs to the department of 
Poetry (as that of the imagination). It is Poetry, 
inasmuch as it consists of matter of imagination, but 
it differs from what is ordinarily called poetry, inas- 
much as the vehicle is not verse but prose." 

The "common division" of literature here stated 
we cannot adopt, nor the principle that everything is 
necessarily Poetry that " consists of matter of imagina- 
tion." It is still true, as Masson intimates, that 
Fiction belongs to ''The Prose literature of the Imag- 
ination," or, as he states later, in showing the rela- 
tion of Fiction to Poetry, that "The Novel, at its 
highest, is a Prose Epic." The detailed coincidences, 
however, on which Mr. Masson insists, between the 
Prose Fiction and the Epic, are pushed too far in 



150 ENGLISH PROSE. 

that it would narrow the province of the Novel to the 
narrative or historical. 

Fiction, is thus, poetic more or less, but not, as a 
matter of course. Poetry. Here is just the point on 
which the question turns. The main feature in 
poetry, after all, is one of /orm, and not of essence. 
It is its metrical structure. Even bad poetry in 
metre is poetry, nevertheless, and Fiction belongs to 
the sphere of Prose because imaginative as it is, its 
form is unmetrical. Its accents are arranged on no 
definite system of regular succession. 

Quite apart from this question of form, as we shall 
see, there are some kinds of Prose Fiction which in 
their content are so decidedly prose as to make it 
impossible to classify them under any form of verse 
production. 

Prose Fiction, therefore, is a form of Descriptive 
Prose, in which the pictorial and romantic element 
enters even more largely than into ordinary descrip- 
tion. Prose, as it is, it serves but to manifest still 
more clearly the close connection of metrical and 
unmetrical literature, and to show that they are but 
different forms (external) of expressing the same 
mental idea. 

It is in point, here, to note, that it is in the histori- 
cal study of English Prose and not of English Poetry, 
that we come to the origin and earliest forms of the 
English Novel. 

It were well could we have done with this anoma- 
lous phrase— Prose Fiction — and term it Fiction, 
pure and simple. If the terms must each exist, 
reason requires their reversal so as to read: Fictitious 
Prose (or Imaginative Prose). 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— DESCRIPTIVE. 151 



KINDS OR CLASSES OF PROSE FICTION. 

The old division into Novels Proper, and Romances, 
need not be emphasized, in that particular forms of 
the Novel may be termed — The Romantic. 

As to these divisions, various ones have been given, 
especially on the side of excessive minuteness. They 
range from the thirteen different orders as given by 
Masson, to the three given by Bulwer — The Familiar, 
Picturesque, and Intellectual. 

We shall present a four-fold division of what Mr. 
Dun lop has happily termed — The Prose Works of 
Fiction, viz: 

The Historical or Local Novel. 

The Descriptive or Social Novel. 

The Ethical or Didactic Novel. 

The Romantic or Sentimental Novel. 

(1.) The Historical Novel. 

If any form of the Novel could be placed under 
Narrative rather than Descriptive Prose it would be 
this. It marks the union of fact and fiction; the 
point of importance being that the fact is for the 
sake of the fiction, and not the reverse, as in history 
itself; so that the novelist is expected somewhat to 
shape and adjust his facts to his plot and plan. For 
this reason, the narrative novel must be placed 
under Pictorial rather than Historical Prose as a 
specific form. It is historical subordinately. 

Of this species of Prose Fiction, Sir Walter Scott 
may be said to be the father, in England. Histori- 
cal Novels had existed as far back as the days of De 
Foe, but under Scott they took a definite and leading 



152 



ENGLISH PROSE. 



place in our literature. In America, Fenimore 
Cooper holds a similar place. 

Separate examples illustrating this order may be 
selected as follows : 



Bulwer's 



Kingsley's 



I" 



" Harold, the Last of the Saxon 

Kings." 
" England and the English." 
" Last Days of Pompeii. 
" Last of the Barons." 
*' Rienzi." 

Hypatia." 
Westward, Hoi 
"Richelieu." 
" Mary of Burgundy." 
James' J " Henry of Guise." 

I "Atilla." 

I " Charlemagne, History of." 
' "Frederic the Great and his Court." 
" Henry the Eighth and his Court." 
" Joseph the Second and his Court." 
" Napoleon and Queen Louisa." 

Many isolated specimens, as Thackeray's "Henry 
Esmond" and "Four Georges," or Dickens' " Martin 
Chuzzlewit " and " Barnaby Rudge," might be cited, 
while in such a novelist as Disraeli there is seen, a 
good example of what might be termed Politico- 
Historical Fiction. 

(2.) The Descriptive Novel. 

This is descriptive by way of distinction, and may 
be safely viewed as the typical form of Prose Fiction. 
It may farther be regarded as the most frequent of 



Miss Miihlbach's - 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— DESCRIPTIVE. 153 

1 the higher forms. It is often called — The Novel 
f Life and Manners, — whatever the sphere or nation- 
liity may be in which that life is exhibited. Its 
object is to give a graphic and truthful picture of 
men and things in a given age or community; "to 
hold the mirror up to nature," (human nature) and 
reveal the world to itself Its purpose and method 
are delineative in the sphere of character and cus- 
toms. It has been called — The Domestic Novel, in 
the fullest sense of that term. 

In this, the historical element is present but some- 
what concealed, while the imagination in its present 
active and portraying work is especially active. All 
the features that mark fiction as a separate form of 
prose and ally it, also, closely to poetry, are present 
in this kind of novel more than in any other. 

It is not surprising to find, therefore, that the 
leadiu": names in Modern Encj-lish Fiction are found 
just here, — Dickens, Keade, Bulwer, Thackeray, Miss 
Mulock, Miss Austen, Mr. Trolloppe, George Mao 
Donald, Collins, Charlotte Bronte and others, as 
Hawthorne, in America. If we extend this list so 
as to include other novelists, who though out of 
England have written in English, their name is 
legion. 

(3.) The Ethical Novel. 

It might be called the Didactic or Philosophical. 
As a matter of history it has been known by some as, 
The Novel of Culture, and by others as. The Novel 
of Purpose. Outside of England, we are pointed to 
Goethe's " Wilhelm Meister" as an example where 



151 ENGLISH PROSE. 

the reflective element in character is made the chief 
one, and where such a character is represented as 
seeking for light in darkness and coming through 
doubt to certainty. 

In this type of Novel we reach a class where 
the distinctive elements of Prose Fiction are least 
manifest, and we border most closely on ordinary, 
unimaginative prose. Such fiction is so formal in 
method and aim, and so introspective in character, 
that it lacks much of the spontaneity and scope of 
fiction proper. The fictional feature is not promi- 
nent, nor is the main object of the novel — to please — 
always clear. Motives are dissected and principles 
laid bare. Fiction as it is, the ethical, logical and 
philosophical cast is so prominent that one is often 
in doubt as to just what he is reading. Mentally, it 
is the most difficult kind of Fiction to pi-oduce or 
enjoy, while its moral coloring is evident on every 
hand. As might be supposed, this is a species of 
the Novel which has but few iUustrations as compared 
with the others. Its leading exponent, in England, 
is George Eliot, whom Sidney Lanier has seen fit to 
regard as the representative English Novelist of 
Modern times. 

^y reason of her present wide influence as an au- 
thor and a thinker, the ethical novel may be said 
to be now at its height and enjoying a popularity 
somewhat apart from its intrinsic worth as a form 
of fiction. 

If it be asked, why this didactic type of novel 
should not find place under ordinary didactic prose 
rather than under Prose-Fiction or Descriptive Prose, 
it may be answered — that philosophical as it is, it is 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS. — DESCRIPTIVE. 155 

fictitious and imaginative in its groundwork and 
method. In its use of symbolic characters it has all 
the descriptive element of dramatic writing. It is 
didactic simply as to its aim. Its character is delin- 
eative and pictorial. 

(4.) The Romantic Novel. 

This is what is often termed — The Sentimental or 
Sensational Novel. Mr. Masson speaks of it in his 
classification as, The Fashionable Novel, its main pur- 
pose being to set forth the higher phases of city life. 
Bulwer would call it, The Familiar Novel, having to 
do with the more common events and affairs of men. 

In this type of Novel we have the best examples 
of The Romance as distinct from the Novel Proper 
— that order of fiction in which the fanciful and. ex- 
travagant rather than the normally imaginative is 
supreme. Of the four classes mentioned, this is by 
far the most abundant in English Prose, especially so' 
in modern times, and is by far the least valuable in 
character, method and design. It is necessary to 
state that there are two forms of the Romantic Novel. 

The less objectionable form deals, though in a 
somewhat superficial way, indeed, with the current 
phases of fashionable life, and yet keeps compar- 
atively clear of moral excess or defect. It succeeds 
in taking an indifferent attitude relative to the right 
or wrong of any given question, and aims simply to 
interest the reader by skipping pleasantly over the 
surface of social life. It mingles just enough ai't, 
politics, and sober allusion, to cast a coloring of pro- 
priety over all, and yet not enough to detract from 
the chief aiui of fiction — to entertain and amuse. 



156 ENGLISH PROSE, 

Sir Philip Sydney, in his " Arcadia," and Richard- 
sou and Fielding in their better productions, illus- 
trate this form. Mr. Disraeli exemplifies it in his 
politico-social sketches, as also, Bulwer, himself, in 
some of his lighter works. 

With that large class of readers who care but lit- 
tle for the Historical or Ethical Novel, and, yet, 
are not quite prepared to endorse that order of 
production which is positively immoral, this better 
form of Romance may be said to be the most accept- 
able of all. 

As to the lower form of the Romantic Novel, the 
words of Masson are in place — " that no harm will 
attend its total and immediate extinction." We may 
add, that great mental and moral good would attend 
such an extinction. 

This is the Sentimental Novel — pure and simple. 
Transient and unhealthful sensation is its only aim. 
Produced as it is more fully in England and America 
than any other form, and read more than any other 
form, it is yet the one form which should find no 
place in any library or community. It is the novel 
of low life and tendency — the romance of the street, 
brothel, dance house and third-rate theater. As a 
form of Prose Fiction it corresponds precisely to the 
immoral drama of the time of Dryden, as produced 
by Dryden himself, and such authors as Wycherly, 
Aphra Behn and Vanburgh. In the latter part of 
the Augustan Era of English Prose, the immoral 
drama gave way, in part, to an equally immoral order 
of novel as seen in the works of Smollett and Sterne. 
The key-note of it all is illicit love. The most pro- 
nounced indecencies and personal vices are portrayed 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— DESCRIPTIVE. 157 

in brilliant light, and glossed over with an adroit lit- 
erary art so as to allure and corrnpt. This is the 
popular romance of Modern Europe and America. 
Recent English critics are inclined to take a hopeful 
view of the novel of the future. They think they 
discern in what they call the increasing realism of 
the novel, a decided tendency toward the intellectual 
and moral, and away from the fantastic and unsound. 
This tendency to realism is, indeed, apparent, but not 
in the form that is desired. It is not to the end that 
our Prose Fiction may be made more real in the sense 
of historical as in Scott, or more real in the sense of 
truthful social sketches as in Thackeray, but more 
revoltingly real in the form of a material and sensu- 
ous view of life. We must have life depicted as it is 
say these authors, and hence the rise of — The Exper- 
imental Novel of Emile Zola and his English co-work- 
ers—the last outcome of realism, and the lowest 
bottom that fiction has yet reached. 

These tendencies are all downward. The only 
hope of English Fiction is to return to that form 
which, take it together, is the best — The Descrip- 
tive Novel — the safe middle-ground between the di- 
dactic and the fanciful — the portraiture of healthful 
English Life. 

Little need be said as to the descriptive element in 
this last species of fiction. In each of its forms it is 
conspicuous. Often in the lowest form it reaches the 
extreme of wild and loose portraiture whereby the 
baser passions of the reader may be excited. In these 
four species of Fiction, therefore, description is pre- 
sent, though the measure of its presence is difiierent 
in each. 



158 ENGLISH PROSE, 



Rank and Value of Prose Fiction. 

Were we to judge of this value by the amount pro- 
duced and read, this species of Prose must take rank 
over all other existing forms. The proportion is cer- 
tainly six-tenths and over. Modern Critics, — Lanier, 
Besant and others, intimate that a true estimate 
would take us up to eight-tenths. Certain it is, that 
the Novel and the Newspaper are the greatest popu- 
lar educators of modern times. We say nothing as 
to the quality of the education. When it is remem- 
bered, however, that this vast amount is mainly made 
up both as to production and perusal, by the promi- 
nence of the lowest order of Novel, it is seen that 
some other principle than mere amount must be ac- 
cepted as the basis of estimate. If we have refer- 
ence, therefore, to the best forms of fiction only, and 
inquire as to its rank, it is safe to say that in the 
sphere of prose it covers a most important area 
between History Proper on the one hand, and Philos- 
ophy Proper on the other. As has been seen, there 
are historical and philosophical elements in Fiction, 
but not enough to impair its character as fiction, just 
enough, indeed, to strengthen it. It furnishes to the 
English reader and student just that kind of mental 
food that he needs, when not engaged in the weigh- 
ing of facts or the adjustment of speculative prob- 
lems. It is in the line of relief, refreshment, mental 
quickening and aesthetic culture, and when properly 
used ministers to the best development of the man. 

Lanier, in his masterly work on "The English 
Novel" defines it as, *'The distinctive form in which 
man's new personal relation to his fellow man has 



REPRESENTA TIVE FORMS. — DESCRIPTIVE. lo9 

expressed itself." The Novel, in his view, is the ex- 
pression of personality. This he calls " the principle 
of its development." As far as this goes, he would 
rank Prose Fiction as the highest form. This view 
is suggestive and full of interest and, jet, pressed 
too far. 

There are other forms of Prose more important. 
It is indispensable, however, as a form. It supplies 
a place covered by no other form, and is the natural 
mode of the expression of thought. There is no kind 
of prose so easily and frequently abused, and none as 
to which criticism has been more bigoted. 

The lowest form of Fiction should never be read. 
Promiscuous novel reading is a mental and moral en- 
ervation, and, yet, no student of English should fail to 
make himself intelligently conversant with the best 
works of our best novelists. Nothing is more unfor- 
tunate in a literary and moral point of view, than 
that young men should begin with the novel only, 
and for a long time continue with the novel only, as 
the subject matter of their reading. Still, it cannot 
be safely discarded. Its moderate and gradual com- 
bination with other forms of English Prose all along 
the line of one's literary life is the most desirable 
method. 

General Characteristics of Descriptive Prose. 

1. The Imaginative Element 

As already suggested, this is its main feature as 
seen in its two leading forms — Poetical Prose and Prose 
Fiction. It has to do with scenes and object conceived 
as existing in space, and not with actual data given 



160 ENGLISH PROSE, 

to hand. It is an order of prose in which sketching 
takes the place of statement and imagery, that of 
logical process. 

2. Pictorial Diction. 

Descriptive Prose has its own diction. It is called 
by the critics — Word Painting. In Poetry, natur- 
ally, this is the controlling order of diction, as in 
Tennyson. In this order of prose it is present in 
so far as the prose is poetic. Hence, in Fiction and 
other kinds of descriptive writing the phraseology 
is peculiar. It is graphic and picturesque. It is 
delineative. It is in literature what painting is 
in the fine arts, or drawing in the practical arts. 
Hawthorne is a notable example. Dickens, in his 
*' Sketches of Boz," illustrates it, and Victor Hugo, 
in his " '93," and " Les Miserables.'^ Outside of 
Fiction, in the general province of description, 
it is seen in Ruskin, Lamb, and Irving. In His- 
torical Description, as in Prescott, Motley, and Ma- 
caulay, this pictorial use of language is noteworthy. 
Even Gibbon has some striking paragraphs of this 
order. A good use of figurative terms is, thus, an el^ 
ment of success. 

3. Comprehensiveness and Minuteness. 

There is no form of prose, even the historical, in 
which this adjustment of fullness and detail is so 
important and so difficult. Of the object or scene all 
the facts must be described and, yet, the extreme of 
wearisoraeness as to minor points must be avoided. 
Success in this marks the master. The description may 
be complete, and much, yet, must be verbally omitted. 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— DESCRIPTIVE. 161 

The reader has his part, and desires to have it. What 
this is the writer must know. If either, it is better 
to be too general than too minute. A repulsive 
minuteness is the vice of the lowest fiction. It is 
purposely so. Standard novelists, as Dickens and 
Cooper err here, while George Eliot fails at the other 
extreme. As a rule, the Ethical Novel tends to un- 
due comprehensiveness while the others tend to 
undue detail. The best fiction could be condensed 
one-half and be improved. 

How to adjust generals and particulars in the 
presentation of any scene, object, event or charac- 
ter, is the problem of descriptive prose as it is its 
characteristic. 



CHAPTER III. 
ORATOEICAL OE IMPASSIONED PROSE. 

The Words Oratorical and Oral. 

These are to be here sharply discriminated; the 
first referring only to written discourse; the lat- 
ter, to spoken or delivered discourse. Oratorical 
Prose refers to that form of prose in which those 
elements are prominent that would make it adapted 
to oral delivery. It is thus more nearly related to 
spoken discourse than any other form of written prose. 
It may be said to be a kind of middle form between 
the written and the oral and that through which the 
one passes over easily into the other. As such, its 
importance is marked and it is so prominent a species 
of Modern English Prose that its careful discussion 
is essential. The old writers called it — Persuasive 
Prose, having to do with the will and the outward 
action of the man. 

(A.) Characteristics of Oratorical Prose. 

1. Emotional. 

It is the impassioned form, as distinct from the 
historical and the descriptive. It has to do mainly 
with the feelings as sources and agents of power, its 



REPRESENTATIVE FORAfS.— ORATORICAL. 163 

main object being to express, awo.ken and contn^l 
feeling. It is a form of writing marked by trne 
inspiration and impulse rather than by the more 
cautious processes of reason and logical analysis. It 
seeks to impress more than it does to explain ; to incite 
to immediate purpose and action rather than to show- 
why such action might be desirable or practicable. 
Whatever other qualities of a good style it may be 
said to possess, it possesses the quality oi force more 
than any other. Hence, the themes that it discusses 
are cogent, animated themes — the vital issues of the 
age or people, calculated to beget true passion in the 
soul of the writer and reader. 

The diction chosen is thus forcible rather than 
merely clearer graceful; the sentence structure is so 
built up and related that the leading ideas of the par- 
agrapli shall stand forth prominently and so that the 
best effect of the rhetorical climax shall be produced. 
For the same reason, the strongest forms of figurative 
language are used, as Metaplior, Personification, Epi- 
gram and Interrogation so that the final effect of the 
writing may be intensified and potent. All that is 
iusipid, puerile or irrelevant is conscientiously discar- 
ded if so be the thought expressed may have its fullest 
force and move the soul of the reader. This feeling 
may be subdued or demonstrative, still, it is in the 
sonl and in the thought and cannot be concealed. 
If it be genuine, little care need be taken as to the 
precise manner of its expression. 

2. Objective in Aim and Result. 

It is a form of prose whose purpose is altogether 
outside of itself It is not so much for the writer's 



164 ENGLISH PROSE, 

sake or even for the sake of the subject matter, as for 
the reader's sake, to move and mold his nature. It 
is for this reason free from many of those literary er- 
rors that arise from restriction and the prominence of 
the subjective. It is for this reason that they succeed 
the best in this kind of prose who have the fullest 
knowledge of men and things outside of themselves. 
They understand their fellows and the times in which 
they live. They know how to reach men and im- 
press them, so that when they take pen in hand to 
discuss a living theme for definite external ends they 
cannot but be forceful. They are so, sometimes, at 
the expense of the graces of literary art. Their 
vigor and masculine power are, at times, manifest 
to the detriment of the niceties and proprieties, 
so called. Such writers are willing to sacrifice the 
lesser to the greater, and gain force when they 
lose refinement. Devoid of finish as such prose 
often is, it won Id be safe to say, that no species 
would be more missed to-day from the body of 
our prose literature. It is as much needed as it is 
rare. 

This external force of impassioned prose lies partly 
in the theme or the time, but mainly in the author 
himself. The personality of the writer, after all, is 
the motive power. It is that which leads to potent 
expression and impression. English writers may be 
classified on this principle — their ability to project 
themselves upon the mind and heart of their readers, 
so that the reader, perforce, acknowledges the power 
and yields himself implicitly to its sway. These are 
the masters. They are but few, but they rule the 
world. 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— ORATORICAL. 165 

3. Freedom of Thought and Expression. 

True feeling cannot be confined within prescribed 
limits. In its very nature it is spontaneous. Emo- 
tion is motion. The royal law of liberty holds here 
most especially. As soon as any formal statute is 
applied which the writer must, at all hazards, follow, 
the natural flow of passion ceases and all is con- 
strained aud sluggish. All genuine emotion must 
be under the control of mind and judgment, but this 
conceded, its range is to be unrestricted. There is a 
drift, a momentum about it that cannot brook ob- 
struction, and if obstructed, will leave its normal 
channel and break away into dangerous coiu'ses. 
Specific limitation here is fraught with far more 
harm than the largest possible liberty of scope. 

4. Interesting and Stimulating. 

"Passion," I see, "is catching," said the dramatist. 
There is no form of prose in which the attention of 
the reader becomes more engrossed. This arises from 
its very nature as impassioned, and from the character 
of the subject discussed. Earnestness begets corres- 
ponding earnestness even to the removal of hostility, 
indifi*erence and prejudice. The reciprocal influence of 
author and reader is constant and potent and as the 
tide of feeling rises in one it rises in the other until 
full community of interest is established. Discourse 
now appears as a sympathetic interchange of ideas 
for mutual good and the happiest results follow. In 
oral speech, where the orator and the auditor come 
into the personal presence of each other, the results 
are at times, indescribable. Even in written prose, 



166 ENGLISH PROSE. 

however, the principle of sympathy holds good, so 
that there is identity of feeling and object. The 
reader is more than entertained as in pictorial de- 
scription or pleasing narrative. He is absorbed and 
engaged and becomes, for the time, personally com- 
mitted to the subject in hand. The understandings of 
men may be enlightened and their judgments con- 
vinced and their taste gratified in other ways and 
by other forms of prose, but little is done, after all, 
until the soul, as the seat of the affections, is reached 
and roused. Men must be moved. 

Notes. 

(a) This form admits of the presence of the imagin- 
ation^ in its office of bringing the unreal into real 
nearness, and thus making it more effective in awak- 
ening feeling. In dramatic literature and in sacred 
discourse this emotive office of the imagination is 
especially cogent. The abstract must be made visible, 
concrete and real, in order to evoke emotion. 

(1~)) The Ethical Element is here indicated. 

Genuine passion has a distinctively ethical feature. 
It comes from the soul, the moral nature of man and 
is best illustrated in the moral realm. Impassioned 
prose, as such, awakens the deepest sentiments of the 
lieart and appeals to the higher and deeper nature. 
In Scripture, in sacred prose and in secular prose of 
the ethical order, its best illustration is seen. 

Moral feeling is the highest form of feeling. 

(c) Its Abuse. 

This is as common as it is easy. Just because this 
order of prose appeals to the emotions rather than 
to the critical faculty, it is delicate and tender in its 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— ORATORICAL. 167 

nature. It is as sensitive as sympathy itself. Spon- 
taneous in its outflow, it may easily degenerate into 
fanaticism or unlicensed passion. In Prose Fiction, 
as already discussed, there are striking examples of 
such abuse — in those lower forms of the novel where 
feeling is excited either for its own sake or for some 
transient and base end. 

(B.) DIViSlONS OR K8NDS OF ORATORICAL PROSE. 

1. Forensic Prose. 

This would be called in England, Parliamentary 
Prose, and in America, Senatorial or Congressional. 
The written productions of that class of men known 
as the British and American Orators would best ex- 
emplify this order of prose — Pitt, Fox, Burke, Adams, 
Otis, Clay and others This is the civil or political 
prose of English Letters — the literature of statesmen. 
Its themes are practical and broad. It has to do 
with the discussion of great national issues, on which 
the policies of States depend. It seeks to enforce as 
well as expound great constitutional principles as 
embodied in the various forms of civil government. 
Cicero in the Forum, Mirabeau in the Assembly, and 
Sumner in the Senate, present a form of prose which 
as written and unspoken is oratorical and impas- 
sioned. In the days of Aristotle and the Greeks, it 
was termed. Deliberative Prose in that it had to do 
with the weighing or considering of vital civic ques- 
tions. It is legislative in its order and object and is 
handed down to later ages in the shape of State 
documents for reference and as elaborate orations 
for studv and instruction. 



168 ENGLISH PROSE. 

If the requisites to its successfal production be 
asked, they may be said to consist in political knowl- 
edge and an unselfish devotion to public interests. 

The forensic writer must be thoroughly versed in 
the Science of Government — its sources, powers, forms 
and aims. He must be grounded in constitutional 
law as a special branch of law, must know the rela- 
tions of rulers to the governed, and what is called, 
the genius of government. A state paper from such 
a man as Gladstone is valuable in its literary and 
official character as coming from one who is a student 
of statecraft as he is a student of Homer and English 
Poetry. 

Early American Forensic Prose is thus, far in ad- 
vance of the later, and may favorably be compared 
at that time with that of the mother country. 

2. Judicial and Argumentative Prose. 

This is closely allied to the former kind in j:hat the 
jurist and tlie statesman, as in the cases of Hamilton 
and Webster, have so often been combined. Still it 
has a separate place and history. It is the prose of 
written debate and jurisprudence and largely ilhis- 
trated in every period of marked mental activity 
when sides must be taken and proofs examined. Its 
object is to secure, defend and enlarge the rights of 
man, national, local and individual; to see that justice 
is done on every hand. Nor does its end close with 
the mere exposition of the law, but as a form of im- 
passioned prose it has more especially to do with its en- 
forcement and application. It has a persuasive element 
in it, especially as applied in criminal jurisprudence 
where feeling sometimes rises to its highest levels. 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— ORATORICAL. 169 

Conviction is reached through emotion, as guarded 
by reason. In published Debates and printed Judi- 
cial Cases and Proceedings this style of prose is 
seen. 

Here as before, knowledge and personal interest 
are the main essentials to success. The judicial 
writer must be versed in the principles and details of 
law as a separate science, must be imbued with its 
spirit as the embodiment of justice and be devoted 
to its great end, the maintenance of human rights. 
Irrespective of any particular case in hand, he must as 
a man, be identified with the triumph of law if so be 
he is to write with cogency and success. Erskine of 
England and Choate of America finely fulfilled these 
conditions. 

Just to the degree in which a juristic writer is 
conversant with his theme and loyal to the interests 
of law and order wherever infringed, will he be fer- 
vent in his style and produce a type of prose so 
animated as to find its best and fittest expression in 
oral discourse. 

3. Sacred Prose. 

This is best seen in Homilies, Sermons, and Ethical 
papers. It has all the emotional elements of ordinary 
secular prose as oratorical, with that additional ele- 
ment which comes from its moral character. 

This form, in its very nature, is persuasive, sympa- 
thetic and arousing. It aims at an immediate result 
upon the will, conscience and life. Sacred Prose, in 
so far as written, should be imbued with genuine 
feeling in that it has to do with the highest interests 
of uidii and must reach those interests largely 



170 ENGLISH PROSE. 

through the afFectious. The sermon, as distinct from 
the technical theological system or treatise, should be 
impassioned. In the extant sermons of the great 
French preachers — Massillon, Bourdaloue and Bossuet ; 
in Chrysostom of Greece; in Hall, South, Tillotsoii 
and Taylor of England; in Chalmers of Scotland 
and in Edwards of America, this order of prose is 
seen to be fervid and forceful to the highest degree. 

In each of these forms of oratorical prose men- 
tioned, it is to be emphasized, that there is present 
an impassioned vigor and boldness of style. What- 
ever their didactic basis in knowledge may be, or 
whatever their purpose to explain, political, legal or 
moral science, their main feature is the emotional 
ouQ and their main aim, to stimulate and persuade. 
No literature is richer than the English in this form 
of prose. Just because it is mediate between written 
and spoken discourse it is interesting and serves to 
mark the close relations of the two departments. It 
is needless to add that as strong as these principles 
are in written prose they are immeasurably stronger, 
when they assume oral character in the person of the 
orator. Modern English and American Prose needs 
nothing more than this impassioned element. In the 
rise and prevalence of technical criticism and in the 
dominance of a false eestheticism in art and literature, 
there is danger lest masculine vigor may give way to 
the effeminate and the Saxon turn once again to the 
Norman. 

There is no danger whatever, as some insist, that 
high and clean literary art will suffer when passion 
enters. We are told that the dispassionate temper is 
proper here and no other. This dogma is plausible, 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— ORATORICAL. 171 

but has overreached itself until the formal has too 
often taken the place of the natural and until cor- 
rectness has triumphed over creative genius. Dryden 
had his day and did his work and need not be re- 
called. The period of expansion in our prose is the 
best, among other reasons, for this, that it is the most 
spontaneous and informal and yet according to law. 
English Poetry is fast succumbing to this unimpas- 
sioned ideal and is thereby losing its hold on the 
modern mind It lies in the line of the best interests 
of our prose to conserve this intrinsic element, and 
give it all healthful scope as guided and guarded by 
rational principle. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PHILOSOPHICAL OE DIDACTIC PROSE. 

The term — philosophical — is not. used here in its 
technical sense as applied to the speculative or meta- 
physical, but in its more general sense of scholarly, 
intellectual or dignified prose. The term, didactic or 
reflective will express it It is not mainly historical, 
descriptive or impassioned, nor does it include these 
elements to any marked degree. As contemplative 
and instructive, it differs from them as it also does 
from that spacious province of prose included under 
the name — Miscellaneous. It has an individuality of 
its own. 

The most restricted use of the word Philosophy 
would mean — Mental Pliilosophy (Psychology, Meta- 
physics). In this sense, philosophical prose would 
mean the actual prose of philosophy as a separate 
department as seen in Locke, Berkeley, James Mill, 
Stewart, Hamilton and others. This is, of course, ex- 
cluded. A wider use is indicated in the terms — 
Philosophy, Science, Art and Literature. Here the 
word includes— Mental and Moral Philosophy, Logic 
and so on. Li such a usage, the prose would be 
represented in. the works of those respective branches 
of learning. The university use of this word as seen 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— PHILOSOPHIC. 173 

in tlie Doctorate of Philosophy is this wider one and 
iijcludes even Language and Literature. A further 
peculiar and confusing use of this word is seen in the 
bense of Science as in the Phrases — ]\Iental Science, 
Moral Science, Natural Science and so on, where the 
words Science and Philosophy are strangely mixed. 

No one of these uses is in place in the discussion 
before us. 

Philosophical Prose means here, unimpassioned 
prose. It is marked by the absence of graphic, fig- 
urative and oratorical elements. It is temperate, 
even, academic and intellectual. It has a high de- 
gree of literary gravity and is the^golden mean between 
the lighter and the heavier forms. It is not super- 
ficial on the one hand nor is it, on the other, heavy 
and repulsive. It is an order of prose we may add, 
germane to the calm and reflective character of the 
highest minds. It is a style of writing in which 
principles are discussed more than facts; laws and 
causes, more than special applications. Its method 
is wide and broad. It reaches the frontiers and 
foundations of things. Nothing short of thorough- 
ness will satisfy it as a method. A few examples of 
it outside of the region of Philosophy Proper will 
illustrate its meaning and its power. It is seen 
in Hooker, Adam Smith, Alison, Chillingworth, 
Barrow, Butler, Warburton, Charnock, Whewill and 
others. These men were not writers on Mental 
Science distinctively; they wrote on theology, social 
economy, history, and literature and kindred sub- 
jects. In fine, they wrote not on philosophy as a 
specific subject, but on all subjects pMlosopliically. 

Froude and Bancroft have written philosophically 



174 ENGLISH PROSE, 

on history as Devey has on English Poetry and Gui- 
zot on European Civilization. These names will mark 
it as an order ofprose'by itself. Mr. Emerson of our 
own country, is in the main, a philosophical writer on 
general topics, though his too frequent obscurity 
detracts much from the merit of his style. The phil- 
osophical style is as clear as it is profound. 

(A.) Characteristics. 

1. Unimpassioned. 

This allies it somewhat to the Historical order of 
writing and marks it as distinct from the OratoricaL 
It has little to do with the emotions as a separate 
part of the nature of man. Its object is fully gained 
when in the clear, white light of reason, the subject 
is made plain to the rational understanding of the 
reader. The older writers would have called it, the 
Expository or Explanatory Form by which the topic 
is made plain through an unadorned presentation of 
it to the mind. It aims to establish the exact mean- 
ing of the idea rather than its truth or falsity — to en- 
li^hten rather than convince. In sacred discourse 
this is often seen in what is called — the expository 
method. There is, even in the popular use of this 
word, this idea of dispassionateness. Men are said 
to take life philosophically, when they accept its 
events and issues without any special feeling. 

2. TJiorougJi in Method and Aim. 

There is a virtual antithesis between the terms — 
philosophical and superficial. This general use of 
the term is undoubtedly derived from its special use 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.—PHILOSOPHIC. 175 

as denoting Mental Philosophy. This department 
of thought, having to do above all others, with the 
most profound questions of human interest, the very 
word, philosophical, even in its popular sense has 
retained the generic idea of profundity and thorough- 
ness. The very nature of it excludes the hasty, 
imperfect or desultory treatment of a theme. In this 
respect, philosophical prose means a solid, substantial 
order of prose, one that carries its own force with it 
and whose fitting illustration demands, on the part 
of the writer, a profound and substantial mind. 
Tins is a species of prose to which Bacon had 
reference when he said: "Studies serve for ability. 
Read to lueigJi and consider. Some books are to be 
chewed and digested, to be read wholly and with 
diligence." It is safe to say, that for this reason, if 
for no other, a literature cannot be said to be com- 
plete or excellent without a good degree of such 
prose. It acts as a conservative element among 
others less stable. It steadies and balances a litera- 
ture as ballast does a vessel. Periods may be classi- 
fied as safe or excessive by the presence or absence 
of it. It marks the Formative, Settled and Expansive 
eras of our prose. In the Transitive era it was much 
less conspicuous, but had it not been for its partial 
presence, the results would have been far more 
disastrous. It may be added here that what is 
called, a thoughtful or suggestive style, is germane 
to this order of prose. From the fact that it deals 
with great principles in a weighty w^ay, the expres- 
sion would be but the outward form of the ideas 
behind it, and far more would be intimated than 
could be stated. The ideas as germinal and potential 



176 ENGLISH PROSE. 

would beget otlier related ideas in continuous succes- 
sion, so as to make the style full of intellectual 
stimulus. In this regard, it is a type of prose whose 
excellence increases with the mental maturity of the 
writer. It is alike a cause and a result of such 
maturity. 

3. Sedate and Dignified. 

This amounts almost to a moral quality in this 
type of prose — the natural expression of the soul 
when in its contemplative moods and the natural 
expression of the English mind as distinct from the 
South European. It is for this reason that we find 
it in every period of our literature and most marked 
in those eras when ethical influences are the most 
active. Gravity is said to be a mark of the higher 
order of historical prose, as of other forms. It is so 
when they are the most philosophical, while in 
philosophic prose itself it is a vital element. Its 
unimpassioned and profound character would demand 
this and no excuse would be accepted for its omis- 
sion. It corresponds in prose to the principle of 
moral sublimity in poetry and its effect is similarly 
great. It demands that the theme, method of dis- 
cussion and the special aim of the writing be lofty 
rather than low, on a spacious and not a narrow 
scale and that the result be morally elevating. 
When Herbert Spencer writes on — The Philosophy of 
Style, or Campbell on— The Philosophy of Rhetoric, 
or Schlegel on — The Philosophy of Life and Language 
they write philosophically in that the discourse is 
marked by a literary and moral dignity throughout. 
TKii? form of prose never descends to the trivial or 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— PHILOSOPHIC. 177 

puerile or even to justifiable pleasaiitr}^ and liumov. 
Its high mission is never forgotten, and the fulfill- 
ment of that demands a rational sobriety. For this 
reason, it is well that it is not the most frequent form 
of prose. For this reason, also, it is well that it is a 
distinctive form having place and function in our 
prose literature to control more wayward tendencies. 

4. Adaptive. 

This form mingles freely with all the others, save 
the Impassioned, while even there it is not altogether 
absent in that feeling itself must ever be under the 
control of the judgment. In History it is pronnnent 
in what is termed, the Philosophy of History or the 
philosophical method of treating it. Even in Prose 
Fiction, there is the Philosophical Novel in which 
character is profoundly studied and where \^\\q ethical 
features are made prominent. 

In oratorical prose other elements are more marked 
and yet, in judicial and sacred discourse most especi- 
ally, the meditative and the moral are present and 
potential and lend a philosophic cast. Judicial prose 
is in its very nature dispassionate and dignified. 

In Miscellaneous Prose, where all the forms find 
place this, of course, has a place where any specific 
subject is discussed after a philosophical manner. 

5. A Prose Form, Distinctively. 

There is a species of poetry called Philosophic or 
Didactic. It is, however, exceptional and question- 
able. If in addition to the metrical form of verse, it 
be required that it be essentially poetic, marked by 
imagination, passion and a purpose to please, it is au 



178 ENGLISH PROSE. 

open question with some whether such verse is 
poetry at all. Pope's Essaj on Man and on Criticism 
lire styled Prose Poems, by way of compromise. On 
the other hand, as we have seen, there is some prose 
so poetical that it would fairly find place in verse and 
it is termed, by a similar compromise. Poetical Prose. 
In the department of Prose Proper, however, 
among all the forms studied, the Philosophical or 
Didactic is the most fully prose of all others. It has 
the least of the elements of the poetic. In fact, the 
terms — philosophic and poetic — are mutually exclu- 
sive; the one is unimpassioned; the other, as Milton 
holds " sensuous and passionate." The one aims to 
instruct; the other, to please. The one is full of 
imagery and figure; the other is marked by their 
absence. All the main differences between prose 
and poetry might be stated in distinguishing philoso- 
phic prose from poetry. In this respect. Historical 
Prose is the only form that can be compared with it 
as a typical form, while in narrative, itself, the poetic 
and descriptive elements are freely applied as is not 
the case in the form before us. 

Prose in the very idea of it is didactic and sedate. 
Jt states facts and truths plainly and soberly, for 
enlightenment and moral effect. When, as in de- 
scriptive and oratorical prose, there are added the 
imaginative and emotional elements, the normal, 
original idea of prose is somewhat modified and the 
transition already begun toward poetry itself. 

(B.) Contents or Divisions. 

As already noted. Philosophical Prose would in- 
clude in its most general sense, any and every 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— PHILOSOPHIC. 179 

written production presented in a pliilosopliical 
manner — unimpassioned, thorough and sedate. It 
would thus make up the body of its product largely 
by selecting from other forms what properly belongs 
to it, and partly from the classification of those writ- 
ings which belong to it alone as a specific form. 

On the first principle, the divisions would be as 
follows — 

(a) Philosophical Narration. 

This would virtually include -all that has beea 
stated in treating of that department, it being em- 
phasized, that Narration Proper has reference only to 
dates and facts and events in temporal succession 
and not to causes and effects. Gibbon and Buckle 
have tlius written philosophical history. 

(b) Philosophical Description^ as seen in the gen- 
eral province of description when applied to the 
abstract and immaterial in ethical fiction. What has 
been said of this higher kind of description is hero 
in place, it also being marked that Description 
Proper has reference only to the simple portraiture 
of visible objects, and not to the invisible or moral. 
George Eliot has thus written. 

(c) Philosophic Exposition in Oratorical Prose. 
This applies to those elements of judicial, forensic 

and sacred prose where the unimpassioned feature 
is the main one — where laws are to be explained, the 
great principles of political codes expounded or 
divine truth elucidated. Choate, Webster and Ed- 
wards have thus written. 

(d) Philosophic Miscellanies. 

Here would be found everything in the depart- 
ment of Essays and Discussions which in the absence 



180 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of historical, descriptive or oratorical features, pre- 
sents in marked degree, this philosophic character. 
The style is deliberative rather than discursive. 

Most of the best essayi^s, such as Addison and 
De Quincey, give examples of this. Critical essays 
as a class illustrate it. 

On the second and more specific principle, a dif- 
ferent classification is reached. 

Excluding these four classes already mentioned, 
this division may be said to include all those prose 
writers who have written philosophically and yet 
who have not written on Philosophy Proper, or 
Mental Philosophy, so called. 

^It would include such classes of prose and authors 
ae the following — already mentioned as illustrations: — 

(a) The Philosophy of History by Schlegel 

" " Khetoric " Campbell. 

" " " Language " Schlegel. 

" " Style " Bascom. 

(b) Another large division here classified is where 
the term Philosophy or Philosophical is not used and 
yet might be as marking a peculiar character. Some 
of these have been mentioned as. Hooker, Adam 
Smith, Barrow and so on. Others are — Benthan:i, on 
Ethics and Jurisprudence; Clarendon, on English 
History; John Foster on Character; Karnes on Crit- 
icism; Temple, on Politics; VValpole, on Government; 
Clarke, on The Being of God; Blackstone, on Law; 
Alison, on Taste; Day, on Science and Dunlop, on 
Fiction. 

Such a list would carry us over all the main de- 
partments of human research and reveal, also, higher 
tendencies of style and thought. 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— PHILOSOPHIC. 181 



Notes. 

(a) Rapid Increase of this Form. 

From what has been stated, a clear tendency is 
visible in our best writers to present subjects from 
the standpoint of philosophic calmness and thor- 
oughness. It is one of the best literary signs of 
the times, and serves to guard our prose against the 
excessive growth of those lower forms of fiction, 
vapid description and rambling miscellany which 
are apt to impair the vigor of style. 

(b) Relation to Writers in Formation of Style. 
Though a natural and desirable form of prose, it 

has less in the way of immediate result for the young 
writer than either the narrative or descriptive. It 
reaches a higher range of themes; pursues a more 
logical method; assumes a good degree of mental 
insight and strength and is thus, difficult. It be- 
longs to later stages. As a form of prose, however, 
it should lie in the line of the writer's ambition. In 
all his literary work it should be in view as desirable. 
It will thus, indirectly, color and mold his style, 
save him from grave errors and prepare him, in due 
time, for its appreciation and personal use. 



CHAPTER V. 

MISCELLANEOUS OE PEBIODIOAL PROSE. 

These terms, which have now become generally 
accepted, are used to express that order of prose 
which cannot be strictly classified under any one of 
the four divisions already stated — Historical, Descrip- 
tive, Oratorical and Philosophic. Containing numer- 
ous examples of each of these forms it cannot be said 
to have a sufficient preponderance of any one form 
to mark its special character. The word, periodical, 
is that which dates from the days of De Foe and 
refers to the regular appearance — annually, monthly, 
weekly or daily — of the various literary publications. 
Periodical Literature is now used in this sense and 
applies mainly to the magazine and journal. 

The term, miscellaneous, is somewhat broader. It 
covers that large area of prose product in which any 
one or all of the specific forms may be illustrated 
and may mean very much what we mean by mixed 
or discursive writing. It confines itself to no one 
class of themes; follows no one exclusive method; 
adopts no one species of literary style ; shows no par- 
ticular preference for any one class of prose; and 
exercises in this sphere a kind and measure of liberty 
similar to that which the poet possesses in the realm 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— MISCELLANEOUS. 183 

of verse. Nor is it to be understood that the term, 
miscellaneous, is used to indicate an inferior type of 
prose, inasmuch as it defies special classification. 
What it loses in this respect in the line of definite- 
ness of place and fauction, it gains in another in the 
line of variety of topic, freedom of method and gen- 
eral scope. Much of its attractiveness to the general 
reader and even to the student, lies in its very 
variety, and makes it accessible and helpful where 
more elaborate treatises could not be mastered. Its 
miscellaneous character need not make it any the less 
clear or thorough. That brevity of discussion which, 
is essential to it is a means to clearness wliile as far 
as it goes on any one line of discussion it may go 
thoroughly and effectively. 

If, among the forms mentioned, there are any to 
which it more directly inclines by way of preference, 
they are the Descriptive and Philosophic. If choice is 
made between these, the latter would be chosen. In 
the strict sense of the term literary, there is no por- 
tion of miscellaneous prose more prominent than the 
didactic, as expressed particularly in the sphere of 
literary criticism. This is a feature, more and more 
conspicuous. The fact serves to show the high char- 
acter of this mixed form of prose and makes it a 
form interesting in itself apart from all others. Gen- 
eral as it is, it has an individuality and must be 
studied, as any of the others, on its own grounds 
and results. 

(A.) General Characteristics. 

These may be partly gathered from what has been 
stated by way of exposition of terms. 



184 ENGLISH PROSE. 

1. Variety of Topic and Plan. 

Disraeli in speakiiig of this says, " When I liold a 
volume of these Miscellanies, 1 seem to be in a temple 
dedicated to the service of the Goddess of Variety." 

This embraces a range as wide as the province of 
written discourse. There is no form of theme, narra- 
tive, imaginative, impassioned or philosophic, which 
it does not logically include as miscellaneous. This 
scope of topic and treatment is part of tlie explanation 
of its origin, its interest and its need of ludicious 
control. Just because it is unrestricted here, all 
writers feel free to enter it, all readers find some- 
thing in it, and, yet, it may overreach itself iii Uie 
direction of the desultory, vague, and superhciaL 
Hence, it is essential to hold that varied as the topics 
and methods are they must be strictly literary in char- 
acter, removed from the merely technical, on the one 
hand, and the common on the other. If, as in Addi- 
son, they be often homely, they must be so presented 
as to give them the cast and color of literary art. 

Critics speak of the qualities of style as, clearness, 
force, naturalness, simplicity and so on. With the 
present form of prose before us, it would seem to be 
jiect'ssary to add, variety^ to this list as a distinctive 
quality or to hold that the qualities mentioned can- 
not exist apart from this as prominent. Monotony, 
it may be said, is a literary vice, and here it is argued 
by special lovers of Miscellaneous Prose, that its 
variety gives it superiority over any specific form. 
There is some truth in this and an earnest protest is 
to be made against uniformity of style in English 
Letters. As hinted, however, special care is to be 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS,— M..SCELLANEOUS. 185 

taken lest the freedom which is granted entice the 
writer unawares into a rambling method of expres- 
sion, passing in a capricious way from theme to 
theme and not abiding long enough at any one to 
present it in fitting fullness. As far as it goes, how- 
ever, variety in prose expression is a literary virtue 
and Periodical Prose has it distinctively. 

2. Brevity of Treatment. 

The words used to indicate this form might be said 
to be synonymous in popular usage with the word — 
brevity. Each of the specific forms is so called, 
mainly, because it follows out in a continuous and 
complete manner some one line of thought. It may 
"be an historical narrative or a work of Prose Fiction. 
In this the discussion is presumably limited. The 
distinction is largely that between the book or trea- 
tise and the essay or paper, or between the volume 
and the pamphlet; the one is exhaustive; the other, 
suggestive. The one is logical and consecutive; the 
other discursive. In the one, the writer aims to be 
as full as possible without being repetitious; in the 
other, he aims to be as terse as possible without 
being obscure or epigrammatic. As to their special 
characteristic, it is not to be argued that every form 
of discourse possessing it is thereby good and failing 
to possess it is thereby inferior. 

In such a style of prose as this, brevity is natural 
and effective, while in other forms it might be in- 
jurious simply because out of place. In other words, 
brevity as a literary quality is relative. Applied in 
narrative or history or didactic prose just as it is in 
miscellaneous, it would be more harmful than helpful 



186 ENGLISH PROSE. 

as it would defeat the very purpose of thorough pre- 
sentation. Its effect depends on conditions just as 
that degree of variety proper to this form of prose 
would be subversive of all method in any other 
species. Appropriateness is a literary law. It is safe 
to say that Miscellaneous English Prose has suffered, 
at times, from the extreiue application of this princi- 
ple. Carlyle and his school hav^e been guilty here 
as have Emerson and his school in America. They 
have often been terse and curt to a fault, so that the 
paragraph has taken the form of a riddle to be in- 
terpreted by the magi. 

Brevity is perfectly consistent with clearness and 
when so adjusted, adds force and point to the style. 
It acts as a wholesome check upon that natural 
tendency to verboseness, especially common among 
younger writers. 

3. JJnity of Benefit — Pleasure, Information and 
Culture. 

If the general reader were asked as to the compar- 
ative pleasure to be derived from the perusal of the 
different classes of prose mentioned, it is well known 
that the precedence would be given to prose fiction. 
Statistics of libraries and reading rooms, as well as 
the receipts of publishing houses reveal this fact. If 
the question were to be asked, as to the comparative 
profit by way of information, history undoubtedly 
would be assigned the first place. If the question 
turned simply on the matter of intellectual culture, 
one of the other forms might justly be adduced, as, 
the philosophic. 

Without attempting to answer these questions any 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— MISCELLANEOUS. 187 

more minutely it is safe to say that if among the 
varied objects of literary reading, true, aesthetic plea- 
sure, helpful information, culture of style and general 
culture are sought, Miscellaneous Prose may rightly 
claim a large place in the realization of such ends 
to the readei-. Its variety and brevity would secure 
these alike in the way of stimulus and restraint. 

The well-read man is he who has, in a true sense, 
completed the circle of the best literature in all its 
forms of prose and poetry and, yet, were a man 
obliged, from varied causes, to confine himself to a 
separate form, it would naturally be prose, and that, 
the miscellaneous style as best giving him the sub- 
stance of every other form with the additional feature 
of variety. Inside the limits of such a form he could 
become comparatively well-read and be able to give 
a good account of the literary spirit of his country. 
No such alternative, however, is'needed, and when to 
an acquaintance with other classes of prose this is 
added, just that is added which serves to freshen and 
fasten what has already been secured. 

The phrase — General Culture — has become as cur- 
rent as the phrase — Miscellaneous Prose. The one is, 
indeed, largely the result of the other. A wide and 
varied literary training is based on a wide acquaint- 
ance with literary product, by which the student 
secures breadth of outlook and freedom from formal- 
ism and narrowness. 

As to sesthetic pleasure, everything is here calcu- 
lated to produce and foster it. As to information, 
this is as full as the field is wide. As to style, all 
possible features are found here. If in history and 
description naturalness, accuracy and graphic skill 



188 ENGLISH PROSE. 

are given, and, if in the impassioned or philosophic 
treatise, force and solidity are found, each of these 
qualities re-appears in some department of Miscellan- 
eous Prose and the lessons already learned are re- 
impressed. It is, in this respect, the complementary 
and supplementary form of prose, as useful in its re- 
lations as it is in itself It unihes all that has pre- 
ceded. When we take up representative specimens 
of this form from such a writer as De Quincey or Ma- 
caulay, we have in hand a literary product in which 
narration, description, passion and philosophic re- 
flection may all unite to interest, inform and refine. 
Miscellaneous Prose is, in one sense, the most com- 
pact form of prose, in that it fuses many elements into 
one. To produce a masterpiece in this department 
is therefore a mark of intellectual and literary power. 
Such Miscellanies in English may be easily quoted. 

It is this union oT qualities that as much as any- 
thing else renders this form of prose so popular and 
current. None other so happily combines profit with 
pleasure. It is thus that Nathan Drake writes in his 
invaluable essays on this subject: "A series of papers 
thus constituted and forming a whole, replete with 
wit, fancy and instruction has been found, by large 
experience, not only the most useful but the most 
interesting and popular of publications." Hence it is, 
that such a form of prose will find demand in every 
age and as a matter of literary history has never 
been so widely current as now. 

4. Increasing Literary and Moral Gharader. 

The term, classical, in the sense of standard, has, by 
common consent, been assigned to this order of pro- 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— MISCELLANEOUS. 189 

daction. British Miscellany, as a body of prose, 
passes readily under this title. There is much to ex- 
plain this. The wide sphere opened for the choice of 
topics and inetliods gives opportunity for the choice 
of the best, while in that union of qualities to which 
reference has been made, there is an element of 
strength. One of the reasons and indications of the 
rank of this form is found in the fact tliat nearly 
all of the best writers of English Prose in its other 
classes have done more or less of worthy work in this. 
It would be difiicult to make up a list of any length 
including these standard writers wdio did not use 
this form Tliis fact not only endorses the form in 
the w^ay of a proper division of prose, but makes it 
high in character and proves it to be a fitting medium 
for the exercise of the best English talent. Not only 
so, but it is well to note that in the historical devel- 
opment of English Periodical Prose, there has been a 
corresponding literary development, so that where 
the first Miscellanies were almost entirely devoted to 
politics, trade and social life, later examples have aa 
fully magnified the features of taste and style and 
general culture. In fact, the main difference between 
these productions, previous to the days of Steele and 
after, lies just here, — in the non-literary character of 
the one and the literary character of the other. With 
this advance, there has been, also, a moral progress, 
and partly, as the result of the former. Elevation 
of tone and aim followed close the improvements- 
raent of theme and scope. Mere drawing-room gos- 
sip and society scandal gave way, at length, to sober 
topics in letters and manners, and the atmosphere 
was purer. The uniformly ethical cast of the best 



190 ENGLISH PROSE. 

miscellaneous prose of England is something as re- 
markable as it is true, and has no parallel, in this 
particular in any country of Europe. 

The term — miscellany — elsewhere has been a some- 
what suspicious word. It seemed to mean to many a 
broad undefined sphere to which any writer might 
contribute anything at pleasure. Each of these ten- 
dencies to literary and moral looseness has been nobly 
resisted on English soil. In this particular American 
literature as now developing, has a lesson to learn 
from the mother country. 

5. English Origin and History. 

Periodical Prose as a systematic body of prose of 
high character is especially English. It is certainly 
more English than it is anything else. Dr. Drake 
goes so far as to say: "The Tatler presented to 
Europe in 1709 the first legitimate model." Previous 
to this, such productions had been attempted in other 
countries, among the Dutch, and especially in the 
works of Montaigne and La Bruyere in France and 
La Casa in Italy. Even in England similar specimens 
were seen between the days of Elizabeth and Anne; 
in Bacon's Essays, 1597; in Temple's Miscellanea, 
1672; in Collier's Essays, 1697; in Lesley's Rehearsals 
1704; in Cowley, Colton and others. It was not how- 
ever, till the appearance of De Foe's Review, Feb., 
1704, that the English and Modern Periodical may be 
said to have begun. Here, as we believe, is the real 
origin and not in the Tatler of Steele in 1709. This 
work, as that of Addison, carried on even more fully 
what had been introduced and the way was now 
opened for unlimited progress. 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS. — MISCELLANEOUS. 191 

Of all the forms mentioned, this is the most de- 
cidedly English and retains to this day the clear 
mark of its origin and early historj^ The old 
Augustan tinge is still visible in Victorian days. 

6. Human and Natural 

This is a prime characteristic. The keynote was 
sounded as far back as Bacon, who says, of his 
Essays: "They come home to men's business and 
bosoms:" or, in his Preface: "They handle these 
things wherein both men's lives and their pens are 
most conversant, of a nature whereof a man shall find 
much in experience." Addison expresses the same 
idea in another form in the well known statement: 
" I have brought philosophy out of closets to dwell 
in clubs and coffee houses." It is this life-likeness 
which, as much as anything else, explains the fact that 
even in the time of the Spectator, twenty thousand 
papers v^ere sold in a day, and that the day or week 
was regarded as misspent if the periodical had not 
been read, ft is to the praise of Modern Miscellane- 
ous Prose that while it has increased, as stated, its 
literary and moral character, it has still retained its 
naturalness and its truth to life. The style, in the 
best sense of the word, is worldly. It is of the earth, 
earthy, and aims to be true to its terrene origin and 
object. It is, thus, rather to the credit than the 
discredit of the Augustan Miscellanies that, as a 
class, they are now but little read. They were writ- 
ten for the age of Anne and mainly apply there, as 
those of Carlyle are for the nineteenth century and 
may be out of place in the twenty- first. Certain de- 
partments of Miscellaneous Prose, such as Criticism, 



192 ENGLISH PROSE. 

have to do largely with the past; but even here the 
writing is brought down to date and we see through 
the eyes of our contemporaries. One of" the main 
benefits of this prose to the general reader and to the 
student of style is, that it is full of life and spirit. 
The air is tonic and the effect is bracing. No one can 
make hims-elf conversant with it and keep himself in 
contact with it and be a dull man or a dull writer. 

Literature and Life — has become from the pen of 
Mr. Whipple a popular phrase. It is worth its popu- 
larity. Our English word, prosaic, is a sharp rebuke 
at this very point and bids the prose writer be a man 
in living earnest as he speaks to men. 

(B.) DIVSSSONS OR CLASSES OF MlSCELLAl^EOUS PROSE. 

It is not necessary to repeat the classifications that 
have been adopted of this branch of Eugiish Prose, 
most of them marking either the extreme of narrow- 
ness or that of fullness. The division which we shall 
adopt and briefly discuss may be thus stated : 

1. Essays and Reviews. 

2. Leti'ers. 

3. Travels and Tales. 

4. Journalism. 

(1.) Essays. 

This is a term more nearly synonymous with Mis- 
cellanies than any other that might be adopted. In 
a hterary point of view they may be said to cover a 
larger ground than any other and best represent the 
main characteristics of discursive prose as already 
mentioned. This order of production naturally finds 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— MISCELLANEOUS. 193 

abundant application in each of tlie four special 
forms of prose discussed. 

Historical or Biographical Essays, 
Descriptive or Poetic Essays, 
Impassioned Essays. 
Philosophical or Didactic Essays. 

Such writers as Macaulay, Lamb, Bnrlre and Bacon 
will illustrate these respective forms of essay. The 
various characteristics stated under the four specific 
forms as separately treated will apply, respectively, to 
these essays illustrating them. The historical essay 
is simply the historical form of prose in brief and 
popular style. So, in turn, as to the others, it beins: 
noteworthy that the great body of English Essayists 
is made up of those very writers who have also dis- 
tinguished themselves in the production of the separ- 
ate classes of prose. Each of the authors mentioned 
above is a case in point. But very few authors have 
confined their work to the one department of 
periodical prose. 

By the term — British Essayists — is meant, those 
who, whatever their other and more extended work 
may have been, have done also an important work 
in miscellaneous writing, — De Quincey, Goldsmith, 
Lamb, Johnson, Carlyle, and Ruskin. 

The Eeview, so called, is simply a particular kind of 
essav and needs no special classification. Its primnvv 
idea was to answer the purpose of a somewhat lengthy 
editorial acivino- the views of some standard literary 
organ and fonnded, generally, on some book or pub- 
licahnn. Its method, as far as it was distinct from 
the ordinary essay, was biographical and critical, as 



i^^' ' ENGLISH PROSE. 

is seen in Lord Macaulay or Dryden. Thas inter- 
preted, all critics refer their origin to 1802-3, the date 
of the Edinburgh Review, as founded by Jeffrey, 
Brougham and Sydney Smith. Its very object was, 
literary criticism, often destructive in method and 
result, but still useful. This critical spirit is well ex- 
hibited in the comparison of conflicting schools. The 
Edinburgh Eeview was Whig in sentiment. The 
London Quarterly that followed under Gifford and 
Lockhart was Tory. The first mode was in what 
was known as the Lake School of Poetry. The second 
had for its main supporters the very leaders of that 
school — Wordsworth, Southey and others. Whatever 
the spirit, however, the establishment of these reviews 
marked an important epoch in English Prose. It 
marks the origin of English Criticism as a literary 
ar and is now represented in the prose of Matthew 
Arnold. Hence, it has come to pass that among all 
the forms of essay mentioned, the Critical Essay or 
Review has taken precedence and bids fair to hold it. 
This, in fact, was the first occasion of Miscellaneous 
prose-criticism. The difference is, that in former 
times the subject of criticism was political and social 
rather than intellectual and literary. 

(2.) Letters. 

This is a form of miscellaneous prose that need 
not detain us. It is to be marked that the term is 
here used to express that order of correspondence 
which is literary rather than personal or official, and 
v/hich is seen in such intercourse as Goethe and 
Schiller had together by pen in Germany, or in the 
correspondence of Fenelon and of Madame Guyon, 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.-— MISCELLANEOUS. 195 

of Madame D'Arblay and of Madame de Sevigne, in 
France. 

Literature and Letters are one and the same word. 
Epistolary writing in a social point of view probably 
marks the lowest level of artistic composition. It is 
even lower and less substantial than the most inferior 
form of newspaper writing. Literary letters, how- 
ever, have their place as a form of prose. The 
Letters of the Fifteenth century famish us an ex- 
ample in English. The celebrated letters of Junius 
in the reign of George IIL, are such. The written 
intercourse of Carlyle and Emerson is of this order. 
Farther instances may be seen in the Letters of 
Sara Coleridge, of Johnson, of Scott, Swift, Temple 
and Walpole; of Lamb, De Quincey, Macaulay, 
Lockhart, Cowper, Lady Montagu and among the 
members of the Lake School, as a school. 

Here is a large variety of names and topics indi- 
cative of the high literary character which such corres- 
pondence may assume. It will be noticed that in 
this list are the names of many of the best English 
Essayists, who, by way of recreative work now and 
then resorted to the brief and colloquial form of 
epistle. As far as characteristics and general style 
are concerned, they illustrate the principles already 
mentioned save that they are the most informal 
species of literary prose. 

(3.) Travels and Tales. 

These are often written in the form of correspon- 
dence. They involve so fully the narrative and 
descriptive elements of style that they might be 
called, — Narrative-Descriptive Prose. It is better, 



196 ENGLISH PROSE. 

nowever, to place them among Miscellanies, as rep- 
resenting so many different phases of expression. 

They so happily combine pleasure and benefit that 
they are widely current among the people as a 
readable form of literature, and give to the student 
of expression some of the simplest and most valuable 
elements of style. In their best form tliey are 
marked by accuracy of statement, graphic delineation 
and general literary excellence. They are often so 
closely connected with higher literary forms that 
they may be said to rise to the rank of the best 
historical and pictorial prose, while their substantial 
character as based on fact, gives them something of 
the philosophic or didactic cast. It is further to be 
noted that they constitute a comparatively modern 
form of prose, are fully in keeping with the drift of 
modern times and rapidly increasing in amount and 
essential value. The present era is one of rapid 
movement, of wide and vai'ied observation and the 
publisher follows the traveler on his journeyings to 
give to the people the results of his latest experi- 
ences. The danger is lest the literary element give 
way at length to the practical, popular and even 
mercenary; lest the superficial rule at the expense of 
thoroughness and artistic finish be sacrificed to the 
rapid recital of events and scenes. 

The phrase — Explorations and Travels — with which 
we are now familiar, would seem to indicate that 
tliese accounts of men and things are assumiing a 
kind of scientific character, and used to convey in 
the best form the results of such researches in distant 
lands. These records, however, are more technical 
than literary as seen in Humboldt's or Livingstone's 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS.— MISCELLANEOUS. 197 

Travels and Researches, Layard's Nineveh and 
Babylon or Dilkes' Greater Britain. 

Of the strictly literary order may be inentioned, 
among American authors, Irving's Tales of a Trav- 
eler or Columbus or Alhambra, Howell's Venetian 
Life, Bayard Taylor's Northern Travel, Thompson's 
Land and the Book, Hawthorne's Italian Note Book 
or English Note Book, and Emerson's English Traits. 
Among English writers, Dickens' American Notes, 
Hugh Miller's England and its People, Mahaify's Soc- 
ial Life in Greece or Rambles in Greece, are exam- 
ples. These works are composed on strictly literary 
principles and conduce to culture. They serve partly 
the purpose of Prose Fiction in the line of wholesome 
entertainment while they are superior to it in having 
actual historical fact beneath them. 

(4.) Journalism. 

The reference here, is to that form of journalistio 
writing which is of the higher order and aUies itself 
to thorough, artistic work. This is what Prof Cop- 
pee has in mind when he refers to the Augustan Pe- 
riodicals as " the real origin of the present English 
Press." There is no room here for the ordinary 
Newspaper production of modern times, but for high 
class editorial work as seen in the best specimens of 
British Journalism. Strictly speaking, Modern Jour- 
nalism, if by that is meant, the Daily Newspaper 
Press, does not belong to the province of Literary 
Prose. Its method, immediate end and actualvisible 
result preclude this. This is no fault of its own. In 
the nature of the case, it cannot be held to strict ac- 
count in these particulars. If current journalism is 



198 ENGLISH PROSE. 

in the main clear and accurate in style and in the 
line of moral propriety it has accomplished its end. 
If by journalism, however, is meant the entire depart- 
ment of magazine production, monthly, bi-monthly 
and quarterly, as seen in the leading magazines of 
Modern Times, then it takes on a distinct literary char- 
acter and is sufficiently described under the general 
head of Essays and Reviews as discussed. It is sug- 
gestive to note that the connection between the lower 
and the higher forms of journalism, between the 
newspaper and the magazine, is found in the daily 
editorial article wherein, on the basis of facts and 
items the editor rises to general principles and acts, 
for the time, the part of the literary author. Herein, 
lies the hope of Modern Journalism and its claim to 
professional rank. If it is true that the London 
Times is not only a mighty political and social power 
in England, but a literary daily in its tone and cast, 
and acknowledged as such by men of distinction, it 
follows that such an order of Journalism is possible 
and should more abound. The Modern Newspaper 
must exist as a paper of news, but in connection with 
this, the leaders of the English and American Press 
can do no better work for popular English, public 
morality and the general good than by giving to 
journalism enough at least, of a literary character to 
ally it with all our best English Prose. 

Inferences. 

1. Tl\e Relation of Prose Forms to Prose Periods. 

The peculiar adaptation of English Prose to the re- 
spective eras in which it has been produced is wQrth;)r 



REPRESENTA TIVE FORMS.—MISCEL LANE US. 199 

of special notice. It is not meant that this adjust- 
ment can be discerned at every point along the line 
of the history, but can be so discerned at the salient 
points as to make the relationship logical and vital. 

The names of the periods which we have selected 
have been selected on this principle; the name indi- 
cating both the historical and literary character of 
the time. The Formative, Transitional, Settled and 
Expansive periods mark similar types of prose, re- 
spectively. Baconian prose was formative, and as 
such, would have been out of place and time at any 
later period. Addisonian prose, in the days of Ba- 
con would have been similarly untimely as that of 
the school of Dryden would be in the modern expan- 
sive period of Macaulay and Carlyle. The difference 
in these periods is nothing more nor less than a dif- 
ference of literary style peculiar to each separate pe- 
riod. The Spectator was the very thing for the age 
of Anne, but would not do for that of Victoria. It 
would be as difficult to conceive of Hooker writing 
for the Spectator as of Steele writing the Polity, and 
this, not because of the difference in the men so 
much as by reason of the difference in the epoch 
and tendency. 

If we inquire more particularly as to this relation 
of form to era, it may be stated, that in the Forma- 
tive Period, didactic or ethical prose was prominent 
as seen in Hooker and Bacon; in the Transitional 
Period, descriptive and impassive prose, as in Bun- 
yan and Milton ; in the Settled Period, Miscellaneous 
Prose, as in Addison; while the Expansive Period is 
proved to be such from the fact that all the forms are 
found in a good degree of fullness and ever develop- 



200 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ing. The Historical is seen in the school of linme, 
Robertson and Gibbon; Prose Fiction, in the school 
of Richardson, Fielding and Dickens; Oratorical 
Prose in the school of Burke; Philosophic Prose in the 
school of Coleridge; and Miscellanies in the great 
Essayists. 

In this last and present period, now developing, all 
forms are unified and compacted, by which a variety 
and vigor are secured never before reached. If, as 
Bacon holds — "The end of philosophy (knowledge) is 
the intuition (perception) of unity " such an end has 
been practically reached in the historic development 
of our prose. 

2. Belative Value of Forms. 

It is scarcely necessary to draw close distinctions 
here and classify these varied forms on a nicely ad- 
justed gradation of higher and lower. As has been 
hinted, each in its place is the best form and so 
essential that any arbitrary comparison must be 
misleading. 

It being understood that the Miscellaneous Form 
is illustrative of all the others, the remaining forms, 
if stated in the order of their importance, abstractly 
viewed, wonld be Historical, Descriptive, Didactic, 
Impassioned. If all the classes of English Prose 
must be reduced so as to embrace but two, these 
would be the — Narrative and Descriptive. The most 
essential types of human expression are the recital 
of events and the portraiture of scenes. Hence it is, 
that these two species are so connected in nature and 
practice that it is difficult and quite unnecessary 



REPRESENTATIVE FORMS. — MISCELLANEOUS. 201 

sharply to dissever tliem, while in such a form as 
Miscellanies they again appear as a substantive 
feature of the style. 

He who is skillful in ordinary narrative and de- 
scriptive prose has already reached good results in 
writing and gives promise of high literary success. 

3. Form and Idea. 

The old question as to the relation of thought to 
style is still an open question, resulting largely from 
the vicious teaching of certain French and English 
schools as to the nature and objects of style. De- 
fining it as merely the outward expression of thought 
in chaste and correct language, and magnifying the 
external feature out of all due proportion, it came to 
be held that idea was one thing and style quite 
another. What is technically called, the Euphuistic 
style, is of this lower order — where vain verbal con- 
ceits take the place of substantial idea and plainness 
is sacrificed to pomp. On this wise, style, so called, 
was cultivated for its own sake and naturally degen- 
erated into the veriest bombast. It is to be empha- 
sized here that the form of English Prose as it appears 
upon the page to the eye is a form that embodies 
intellectual power. i\Iore than that, it is itself in- 
stinctive with the mental life that it contains, and 
varies in feature and power as that life varies. 

The forms of English Prose are the forms of 
English thought visible and open, and cannot be 
dissevered from that thought of which they are tho 
natural expression. 

Descriptive prose is the writer's poetic personaiiiy 



202 ENGLISH PROSE. 

in written form. It is more than a graphic depiction 
of objects and scenes. It is a portraiture of the 
author's mind through such scenes. It is the delin- 
eation of the man himself behind the scenes. 

Prose Periods are vital by reason of the forces and 
human agencies at work at their centre and determin- 
ing them. Prose Forms are immeasurably more so 
in that they are the express image of the personalities 
within them. *'The style is the Man.'' 



PART THIRD 



PART THIRD. 

REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS 
AND THEIR STYLES. 



(A.) Classification of Prose Authors. 

There are three distinct principles on which all the 
writers of English Prose might be classified. 

(a) On the basis of Periods: — Formative, Trans- 
itional, Settled and Expansive. 

This is the historical or chronological division and 
names the writers simply in the order in which they 
lived and wrote from Hooker to Carlyle^. 

{h) On the basis of Forms: — Narrative, Descriptive, 
Impassioned, Philosophical and Miscellaneous. 

This is the rhetorical division and classifies the 
various writers as to the manner in which they have 
respectively illustrated the leading kinds of Prose 
Discourse. 

(c) On the basis of Thought and Style. 

This is a purely literary division and has advan- 
tages of its own. It is on this principle mainly that 
we speak of a certain order of writers as Representa- 
tive, all others taking their appropriate places in the 
various gradations of rank below this. 

While such writers of the first order might, as a 
matter of possibility, be arranged under the respec- 



206 ENGLISH PROSE. 

tive historical periods and rhetorical forms of prose 
still, this literary classification is quite independent 
of periods and forms and has in view other ends. 

These different principles of classification may for 
convenience be combined in the division of the au- 
thors to be discussed into three separate orders or 
groups. 

The discussion of Modern Prose Proper is thus 
seen to begin with the names of Hooker, Bacon 
and Milton. They may be said to constitute the 
Earlier Group. Whatever their literary faults, they 
are strictly representative. The merits they pos- 
sessed are too distinctive to be omitted. Though 
not as modern as their successors, they still are 
modern authors. 

What might be called, The Second or Middje Group 
of Modern Prose Writers begins with Swift and ends 
with Burke ; including the additional names of Ad- 
dison and Johnson. 

In these writers, earlier literary faults are fast 
eliminated. The grammatical and literary transition 
from Middle to Modern-English, so largely effected 
by Bacon and his colleagues, is now fully effected 
and authors wrote substantially as they write now. 
Still more specifically, the latest list begins with the 
name of Charles Lamb. It is the Modern Group 
Proper. It is the English Prose of the nineteenth 
century happily opened by Lamb, Macaulay, De 
Quincey and Dickens; that order of prose to which 
Carlyle and a goodly number of others have so bril- 
liantly contributed, and which in its present fullness 
of promise bids fair to surpass in quality and measure 
any results already reached. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. 207 

(B.) Explanatory Statements. 

(a) The dividing line between representative writ- 
ers and those immediately below them is often so 
dose and delicate as to make absolute accuracy impossible; 
such authors as Banyan, Hume and Goldsmith being 
placed by some in the first list; by others, in the 
second. No dogmatic opinions can here be given. 
A discussion of all representative authors will not be 
attempted in the present volume but simply enough 
to exhibit a comprehensive and correct view of prose 
style. 

(6) Here and there, as in the case of Carlyle and 
Johnson, Hooker and Milton, authors are regarded as 
representative in spite of some gross defects and 
violations of style. Their thought is so vigorous and 
trenchant, and most of their merits of style are so 
marked, that the effect of faults is largely concealed 
or counterbalanced. Their high literary power can- 
not be ignored. Eepresentative writers are not, nec- 
essarily, in all respects model writers. 

(c) Representative writers are those who not only 
have written so many pages of English Prose, but 
who, back of all visible product are literary in charac- 
ter and spirit and w^ho are identified with the histor- 
ical and national progress of literature in England. 
Such a fact will give a rank to their prose above that 
of others, who apart from this may be authors of 
merit. 

Such writers as Addison and Lamb are thus far 
superior to Raleigh and Sydney. 

(d) There are many writers, who so far as they 
have gone, have done laudable work in prose, but who 



208 ENGLISH PROSE, 

have not gone far enough to claim a place as represen- 
tative. A large number of our Miscellaneous Essay- 
ists are such: — Cowley, Johnson, Wordsworth, Foster, 
Steele and Temple. Some of these have done their 
best work in poetry. 

(e) All representative writers are not representa- 
tive in the same manner. Bacon is so in one sense, 
and Macaulay in another. Each is prominent in Ijis 
own age and way and, as such, cannot be omitted in 
a discussion of characteristic authors. The variety 
of the prominence is as great as that of their respec- 
tive characters. Some representative writers are more 
representative than others. De Quincey is more so 
than Hooker; Macaulay is more so than Bacon. 

(/) In the study of style as expressed in the best 
authorship will be seen the true relation of literary 
principles to literary practice — of formal to apphed dis- 
course. The relation holds in literature as in Logic, 
Mathematics or any other department. Whatever 
may be theoretically studied in the line of diction, 
sentence and figure, or as to the laws, qualities, pro- 
cesses and forms of writing is here successfully 
applied in concrete expression. Each is important in 
its place, and cannot be safely neglected. Mere 
rhetorical theory apart from its faithful application 
or mere literary practice apart from scientific method 
is alike extreme and fraught with evil. This, liow- 
ever, is to be clearly borne in mind — that the formal 
is with reference to the practical and loses itself in 
it. The final end of all study of literary law is per- 
sonal literary product. Hence it is, that literature 
as a visible body of thought must always rank above 
the mere knowledge of the laws of expression. Lit- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. 209 

erary creation of product is far more than mere 
literary criticism. English Prose Style, as studied 
in English Prose authors, will conduce alike to 
skill in criticism and tlie higher skill of personal 
authorship. 

Plan of Discussion. 

As stated in the preface, it is not our present pur- 
pose to give detailed biographical and historical 
sketches of the prose authors whom we study. Such 
a minute method is in place on the part of historians 
of our literature who aim to be exhaustive in their 
treatment, as with Morley, in his, — English Writers, 
or Masson in his — Life and Times of Milton, or Craik, 
in his — English Literature. At present, our object 
is purely literary and critical, and we must keep 
within the bounds assigned us. 

To the literary critic is left the analysis of the au- 
thoi's style as a product of literary art quite distinct 
from biography and history. The life ot" any author 
under notice will be referred to, therefore, only in so 
far as it bears on authorship and style. The discus- 
sion at this point is one of style rather than of authors 
— the Prose Style of Prose Authors. 

In the study now before us special attention will 
therefore be called to those leading principles of En- 
glish Style which have been accepted as such by all 
literary critics and scholars. It is substantially 
the method which Nathan Drake applies, in his in- 
teresting survey of — English Periodical Literature; 
which Masson applies, in his study of — British Nov- 
elists and which Minto illustrates, among other 
methods, in his Prose Manual and which is becom- 



210 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ing more and more fully the accepted method of 
discussion. 

It may be repeated, that our present plan does not 
necessitate the study of every representative prose 
writer, but simply enough to give to the student and 
general reader a satisfactory view of the province and 
quality of our typical English Prose. 

We shall discuss the respective styles of the fol- 
lowing Representative Names. 

Sir Francis Bacon. 

Richard Hooker. 

John Milton. 

Joseph Addison. 

Jonathan Swift. 

Samuel Johnson. 

Edmund Burke. 

Charles Lamb. 

Thomas Babington Macaulay. 

Thomas De Quincey. 

Charles Dickens. 

Thomas Carlyle. 

In such a limited and yet characteristic list as this, 
there may be seen, at once, the Historical Develop- 
ment of English Prose and that of English Prose 
Style. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF FEANCIS BAOON. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born in London, January 22ncl, 1561. In Cambridge, 
1573-0. Thence to Paris with an English Ambassa- 
dor. Admitted to the Bar in 1582. In Parliament, 
1584, from Melcombe; 1586, from Taunton; 1588, from 
Liverpool; 1592, from Middlesex. Degree of M. A. 
(Cambridge) 1594. In Parliament, 1597, from Ips- 
wich; 1601, from Ipswich. Knighted by James L, 
1603. Ill Parliament, 1603-4, from Ipswich. Counsel 
to the Crown. Solicitor General, 1607. Attorney 
General, 1613. In Parliament, 1614, from Ipswich. 
Keeper of the Seal, 1617. Lord Chancellor, 1618. 
Baron Verulam, 1619. Viscount St. Albans, 1620. 
Convicted and sentenced, 1621. Died in 1626, at 
High gate. 

Bacon's Use of Latin. 

The most important fact to be borne in mind at this 
point is, that Bacon wrote most of his works in Latin. 
He was, as Bede and Aelfric before him, an Anglo- 
Latin author. It is, of course, with his works in En- 
glish only that we have to do, save in so far as there 



212 ENGLISH PROSE. 

are evident in all his writings those general qualities 
of style for which he was noted. 

It is quite impossible, at this distant date fully to 
explain the reason of that particular attitude which 
Bacon assumed relative to English and his de- 
cided partiality for the Latin, which he loved to call 
'• that universal language which may last as long- 
as books last." Not only did he compose his fa- 
vorite works in Latin, but regretted that he had com- 
posed any in his native tongue and as speedily as 
possible, converted them into Latin. Though, as we 
have seen, the vernacular was then used by the 
poets — by Hooker, Sydney and others with efficacy, 
though it was comparatively free from the crudeness 
of First and Middle-English times, still. Bacon was 
suspicious of it. Specially jealous as to his reputa- 
tion, he felt that he might as well commit his works 
to the flames as to the vernacular. In a letter 
to Mr. Matthew, shortly before his own death, he 
says: "It is true, my labor is now most set to have 
those works which I had formerly published (in En- 
glish) well translated into Latin, for these modern 
languages, will at one time or other, play the bank- 
rupt with books and since I have lost much time 
with this age, I would be glad, as God would give 
me leave, to recover it with posterity." There is far 
more vanity than piety in this outburst; still, it ex- 
presses his view. He applied these sentiments, 
among other works, to those very essays which by 
his own acknowledgment to Buckingham "of all his 
other works had been most current, for that as it seems, 
the}' came home to men's business and bosoms." It 
is strange, indeed, that this far-sighted man could not 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS. —BA CON. 213 

have seen the vital connection between the currency 
of the essays and their appearance in English. It is 
stranger still that right at the centre of a great 
awakening of English thought he should not have 
felt that the path of literary duty, honor, and wisdom, 
was straight in the line of this home-speech. It was 
strangest of all that a man of Bacon's acumen could 
have before him the actual products of tlie English 
Language in prose and verse from Hooker and 
Shakespeare, and think of this speech " playing the 
bankrupt" with an authors fame, and resorting to the 
dead languages to secure his reputation with poster- 
ity. It may here be suggested, that in Lord Bacon's 
preference for the Latin and his extensive use of it, 
there is a strong historical and literary argument 
against the Baconian authorship of Shakespeare's 
Plays. These Plays are English to the marrow and 
bone and could not have been written by any other 
than an enthusiastic lover of the home-speech. While 
every English scholar cannot but regret that Bacon 
should thus have misjudged the genius and ever 
widening scope of his vernacular, we can yet re- 
joice in the fact, explain it as we may, that ap- 
parently he has outwitted himself and done good 
work in his native tongue. We cannot say, with a 
recent English writer, that we have lost in the 
Latin Bacon an English classic. If some of his 
best works are what they are in and through 
their English dress, English scholars should take 
the benefit of it. Mr. Taine's eulogy is extreme 
w^hen he says: — "There is nothing in English Prose 
superior to his diction," still, he has a record as an 
English Author, 



214 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Bacon is not the English writer he might have 
been had he used nothing but his own speech. Still, 
he is a standard to the degree in which he uses it nor 
must it be forgotten that it was mainly in the region 
of scholastic philosophy outside of the province of 
general literature that he was Anglo-Latin in his 
style. To the student of English Prose, as literary 
and not speculative, Bacon has few relations save as 
a writer of English. 

His Prose Works in English. 

Bacon was a versatile and voluminous author. His 
writings begin in 1582, when he was just past his 
majority, and continue nearly to the year of his 
death. 

The list opens with the — Temporis Partus Maxi- 
mus — and closes fitly with a translation of the Psalms. 
It embraces a vast variety of subject — philosophy, 
church controversy, speeches in Parliament, legal trea- 
tises and discussions, political tracts, ethical disquisi- 
tions, natural science, history, translation, apothegms, 
romance and miscellanies. Mathematics is said to 
have been the only science with which he was not 
conversant. 

It is with his English Prose only, {hat we are con- 
cerned in the discussion of his style, and in such 
a discussion there are but few works which need oc- 
cupy our attention, viz: 

The Essays. 

Advancement of Learning. 
History of Henry VII. 
The New Atlantis. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BACON. 215 

The first edition of The Essays was published in 
1597, and consisted of ten; the second appeared in 
1612, to the number of thirty-eight — of the same 
nature, he says, " which J myself will not suf- 
fer to be lost and it seemeth the world will not;"' 
and the third appeared in 1625 — one year before 
his death. This last and present edition numbers 
fifty-eight and is entitled — Essays or Counsels, Civil 
and Moral. It includes, also, a fragment of an Essay 
on Fame. 

These essays embrace a large variety of themes, 
abstract and practical and are marked throughout 
by the peculiar features of the author's style. 

The Advancement of Learning — was published in 
1605, between the first and second issue of the Es- 
says. It was afterward translated into Latin and 
enlarged into nine books under the title — De Aug- 
mentis Scientiarum — published in 1623. These two 
books of, The Advancement, constitute the first part 
of his work which he called — The Great Reconstruc- 
tion (Instauratio Magna) as he says in writing to 
Bishop Andrewes: — "For that my book of Advance- 
ment of Learning may be some preparation or key 
for the better opening of the Instauration." He adds 
significantly — •' I have thought good to procure a 
translation of that book into the general language." 
As Mr. Spedding suggests: — Bacon had no faith in the 
English as a classical (standard) language. In the 
first book he discusses the Discredits and The Dig- 
nity of Learning; in the second, he discusses Human 
Learning and Divine Learning. Here again the 
area traversed is a wide one and the Baconian style 
is everywhere apparent. This work is especially 



216 ENGLISH PROSE, 

interesting in that it shows the close relation of 
Bacon's philosophical to his literary character. 

The History of Henry VII. — needs little explana- 
tion. In the author's preparatory letter addressed to 
Prince Charles, he says of Henry VII., "I have not 
flattered him, but took him to life as well as I could." 
It is a narrative, pure and simple, rarely ever ris- 
ing to i\\Q discussion of causes and principles. The 
record goes on with great simplicity and we forget 
the author in the story. This is a true test of skill 
in art. In his own language, he would term it a 
history of "narrations or relations." Minto's state- 
ment, "that it is probably the very best history of its 
kind" is extreme, but reveals the attitude of modern 
criticism regarding it. 

The New Atlantis — is nothing more nor less than a 
romance; as Rawley writes in the preface, "This 
fable my lord devised to the end that he might 
exhibit therein a model or description of a college 
instituted for the interpreting of nature." This 
fabulous element is the main one throuL^hout and is 
especially interesting as coming from the masculine 
mind of Bacon. It reads like to More's Utopia and 
has reference to a kind of philosophical golden age 
yet to appear. 

These four works, it will be noted, respectively 
reveal the miscellaneous, philosophical, narrative and 
descriptive orders of prose, as already studied, and 
serve to show, at once, the versatility of Bacon's 
thought and style. 

In the discussion before us, special reference will 
be had to the Essays and — The Advancement of 
Learning. 



REPRESENTAriVE WRITERS.— BACON. 217 

LEADING QUALITIES OF STYLE. 

(1.) Condensation and Compactness. 

Many of the paragraphs and sentences are bur- 
dened with their Aveight of thought. They remind 
one of an autumnal scene when the trees of the or- 
chards are bending to the earth with their fruitage. 
Such a collection as the Essays is a real intellectnal 
treasury. The ideas are packed in so closely as to 
defy any nicer adjustment of truth to truth. It is as it 
the author had been limited in his province, and was 
obliged from the outset, to compress his thoughts 
into the most limited area. This compactness of idea 
is especially noticeable in that successive readings of 
the text only serve to deepen the conviction of its 
terseness. The author himself seems to have been 
conscious of this characteristic, and to have made it 
from the outset a prime object in his writing. It is, 
thus, that in speaking of his Essays, he remarks: 
"They be like the late nev/ half-pence; the silver, 
good and the pieces small;" "certain brief notes, set 
down rather significantly than curiously, requiring 
both leisure in the writer and reader." It is worthy 
of remark, here, that this terseness of style is as true 
of his Latin as of his English writings and arises 
from the fact that in whatever language he wrote, 
his thinking was clear and close and demanded a 
corresponding form of expression. In what are called 
Tiie Apothegms, and Elegant Sentences, and Wisdom 
of The Ancients, this feature of style appears con 
spicuously, e. g.\ — 



218 ENGLISH PROSE. 

"He conquers twice who restrains himself in victory." / 

' To deliberate about useful things is the safest delay." 

" It is a strange desire that men have, to seek power and lose 
liberty." 

"Discretion in speech is more than eloquence." 

" In great place ask counsel of both times;— of the ancient time, 
what is best, and of the latter time, what is fittest." 

"Eiches are the baggage of virtue; they cannot be spared nor 
left behind but they hinder the march;" or as he says in the Essays 
— " We are to seek them only as we may get them justly, use them 
soberly, distribute them cheerfully, and leave them contentedly." 

In The Advancement of Learning, speaking of the use of the 
aphoristic style, he gives us in a single paragraph a definition and 
specimen of it: "It trieth the writer whether he be superficial or 
solid, for aphorisms cannot be made but of the pith and heart of 
science, for discourse of illustration is cut off; recitals of examples 
are cut off; discourse of connection and order is cut off; descrip- 
tions of practice are cut off. So there remaineth nothing to fill 
the aphorism but some good quantity of observation, and, therefore, 
no man can suffice to write aphorisms but he that is sound and 
gy'ounded." 



This is that kind of condensed utterance which 
will not allow the reader a moment's leisure, and 
which in its Spartan and Senecan brevity has called 
forth the praise of all critics, from Johnson to 
Dugald Stuart. In its sententiousness, it extorts 
from a foreign critic of English the avowal, " that 
Shakespeare and the seers do not contain more 
vigorous and .expressive condensations." 

In the two treatises, specially referred to, we are 
free to say that there is more mental stuff in. the same 
space than in any other similar selection from English 
literature. 

To attempt to quote any farther would be folly. 
The reader may open these books at random for this 
Baconian quality. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BACON. 219 

(2.) Analytical Clearness and Suggestion. 

The subject in hand is always dissected and spread 
out in its various parts before the reader so that he 
sees into it aud through it. He sees it in its nature, 
relations and appUcations. It is a complete rhetori- 
cal and logical framework with all the parts in due 
adjustment to each other. It is thus that his dis- 
tinctively philosophical writings are seminal and ger- 
minal rather than fully developed; suggestive rather 
than demonstrative. Their special use, therefore, is 
that of education rather than instruction. They are 
designed to lead the student on by gradual stages 
through a series of hints and teachings to the best 
expression of his personal powers, and the highest 
forms of mental efficiency. It is thus that the author 
aptly terms his essays, ''grains of salt that will 
rather give one an appetite than offend with satiety." 
As examples of this special feature we note the Es- 
saj" on — Simulation and Dissimulation — and that on — 
Atheism. In the Advancement^ as Morley states it, 
" Bacon makes by a sort of exhaustive analysis, a 
ground plan of all subjects of study, as an intellec- 
tual map, helping the right inquirer in his search for 
the right path." If the student or reader will con- 
sult the analysis of each book given by Wright, in 
his edition of Bacon's Advancement, he will see 
what is meant by this " intellectual map." His great 
philosophical work — The Novum Organum — affords 
an illustration of this analytical habit without any 
parallel in our language. 

It is on the basis of this critical and deep reaching 
dissection of a subject that we have in Bacon that 



22r ENGLISH PROSE. 

pecQliar form of expression which may be called in- 
dicative, or exponential rather than declarative, entit- 
ling him to the appellation given him by Taine: — " a 
producer of conceptions." He suggested far more 
than he stated. 

(3.) Incisiveness. 

The reference here is to a crisp, curt and clean-cut 
style. It might be called excisive. Everything 
superfluous is removed. The truth is given in its 
essence. The old terms, conciseness, preciseness ex- 
press it. Thomas Fuller would call it the "pruning 
process." It is Bacon's favorite logical method of 
Inclusion and Exclusion strictly applied to the do- 
main of rhetorical art. While leaving nothing un- 
said that is of vital importance, the special object 
is, to say nothing that is not important. The writer 
is here on the defensive and resists the common 
tendency to the verbose and irrelevant. Even what 
is called amplification in literary art is viewed with 
caution and retrenchment is the order. It is in this 
connection that the epigrams and antitheses of Ba- 
con's prose are properly noted. Whatever might be 
the objections to them in ordinary literature and in 
the liands of unskilful writers, they were to Bacon 
the most natural form of expression, and the most 
essential by reason of the closeness of his reasoning. 
Bacon's thinking was incisive. There were those of 
his own time under the i-nfluence of Euphuism 
with whom this incisive characteristic of style was 
the veriest artifice and who sacrificed to mechanism 
all beauty and vigor of expression. Antithesis is a 
dangerous instrument in the hands of a weakling. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—BACON. 221 

The Pointed Style, with such, is all point. As in 
mathematics, it has position without magnitude; 
place, but no power. Bacon was iiitelleotnally strong 
enough to use it without abusing it and its effect is 
telling. 'Tis thus that he speaks in praise of the 
Queen " that if Plutarch were now living to write 
lives of parallels, it might trouble him to find one 
for Elizabeth;" "that God Almighty planted the 
first garden ; '" '^' that in evil the best condition is, 
not to will; the next, not to can;" " that the best of 
beauty is that which a picture cannot express;" 
"that it is good to commit the beginning of all great 
actions to Argus with an hundred eyes, and, the end 
of them to Briareus with a hundred hands; first, to 
watch, and then to speed." Such pithy sayings as 
these are what Bacon called in another saying as 
incisive as any of them "the seeds of arguments to 
be cast up into some brief and acute sentences, not 
to be cited but to be as skeins or bottoms of threads 
to be unwound at large when they come to be used." 
Sentences such as these are sufficient to classify Bacon 
with the masters of antithesis — with Dryden and 
Pope, Johnson and Carlyle, and those of other lands 
who have shown special aptness in the use of the 
balanced structure. Such a quality of style when 
isolated from others is objectionable and serves but 
to reveal their absence and the need of them, while 
in connection with other and higher qualities, it 
serves a most valuable end. There is a tonic influ- 
ence in the pungency of it. It compels attention, 
if not indeed, assent. It states the case so bluntly 
that there is no evasion and the alternative must be 
accepted. It acts as seasoning in food. It makes 



222 ENGLISH PROSE, 

the pages spicy and palatable to the most fastidious. 
"It is with times," says Bacon, "as it is with ways; 
Bome are more uphill and downhill and some are more 
flat and plain." Some styles, we may add, are all 
downhill or uphill or all flat and plain. There is 
no variety of contrast. Abruptness is preferable to 
monotony. Modern Eaglish and American prose is 
in need of this incisive quality. Other things being 
equal, it marks mental life and spirit and saves the 
book from being shelved shortly after publication. 
Bacon's best prose, though written three centuries 
ago, is still read, not simply because it is in itself so 
matterfull, but because it is so presented as to awaken 
interest and fix the truth in the mind. 

(4.) Strength and Force. 

This may be said to result from the united action 
of the other qualities or to be the ground of them. 
They interact. The style of Bacon is solid. To 
define style as mere form or external presentation 
will not suffice here. It is the form of substance. 
It is itself substantial. It is thus, that in the perusal 
of the best prose of Bacon, reading rises to the rank 
of a study and his own theory is carried out as he 
says in his Essay on Studies: — " Kead to weigh and 
consider. Some (books) are to be read wholly with 
diligence and attention." He despises books that he 
calls "flashy" and like '* distilled waters." As we 
read the writings of Bacon, we feel that we are 
engaged in a mental gymnastic. The experience is 
disciplinary more than entertaining. We feel the 
healthful pressure of a strong mind and a strong 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BACON. 223 

style, and we are made strong by the contact. The 
effect on the mind is like to that of an October 
morning- on the body, — bracing and vital. 

It is thus that his biographer, Rawley, most justly 
remarks: — "In the composing of his books, he did 
rather drive at a masculine and clear expression 
than at any fineness of phrase." It was this same 
vigor that elicited from Johnson that high eulogium 
on Bacon as an orator without which no analysis of 
his style seems to be complete: — " Yet there appeared 
in my time one noble speaker who was fall of gravity 
in his speaking. No man ever spoke more pressly or 
more weightily." 

There is no one synonym that will better answer 
to the word Baconian, as applied to style, than the 
word, vigorous. In this respect, the type of Bacon's 
mind and style was closely akin to Hooker's. That 
same philosophic gravity and mental force belonged 
to each. What Hooker was, in the narrower field of 
theological controversy, Bacon was as a man and a 
writer in the wider field of secular thought. 

Hence, it may be said of Bacon as of Hooker, that 
his style will never be popular in the sense in which 
that of Goldsmith is popular. It is too heavily laden 
with idea and substance, too condensed, analytic and 
substantial to admit of this. Whatever its incisive 
power may be, or its illustrative clearness, it is too 
full of " sterner stuff" to please most men. Herein, 
however, lies its special attractiveness to special 
classes in every age, and herein are found those ele- 
ments of power which will preserve it as a classic as 
long as classic prose is valued. It is this very qual- 
ity Qi strength which exalts the Essays of Bacon 



224 ENGLISH PROSE. 

above the Arcadia of Sydney, and makes it necessary 
for every student of modern prose to begin with his 
writings and those of Hooker as the accepted point of 
departure. 

Bacon is, thus, one of the best examples in literature 
of the true relation of tliouglit to expression. He estab- 
lishes for us the vital principle that, given a method 
of thinking, cogent and clear, we have, as a necessary 
result, a similar style. Instead of shaping the 
thought to the expression and making the matter 
subordinate to the form, the aim must be, to reach 
the manner through the matter. Much of the merit 
af the Baconian style lies in this, that it magnifies the 
principle that a well furnished, disciplined mind in- 
tent upon the expression of the truth for noble ends, 
will rarely give utterance to its reflections without a 
good degree of clearness and force. The expression 
is not a something apart from the subject matter, but 
evolved from it by logical and rhetorical laws. Ba- 
con never studied formal expression apart from the 
thought behind it. It is thus, that while those authors 
of his day who polished their paragraphs with ex- 
treme nicety, are forgotten, the repute of Bacon is 
fresh and full. It is just because Bacon's prose style 
is unstudied by him that the careful study of it by 
others is the part of wisdom. Naturalness is power. 

(5.) Imagination and Illustration. 

This quality is especially noticeable as found con- 
nected with those already mentioned. It is question- 
able whether there is a more striking example in 
English Prose of the close relation of the intellectual 



EPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—BACON. 225 

and imaginative, the philosophic and the poetic, 
This faculty in Bacon's mind and art was eminently 
normal. With other prose writers of his time — Sj'd- 
ney, Raleigh and Burton, it was abnormal. With 
Bacon, the imagination was under the complete con- 
trol of the judgQient and will, so that in all its soar- 
ings it rarely rose above the credible and rational. 
So conspicuous is this feature in his English writings 
that, with the one exception of the New Atlantis, 
he avoids the sphere of the purely fanciful. In — The 
Wisdom of the Ancients, — written in Latin, he takes 
special pains to allude to the manner in which alle- 
gory has been wrested from its true purpose as an 
aid to the truth, and made to minister to the wildest 
fancy. His method here was not so much that of 
Paul's when he knew not whether he was in or out 
of the body, as that of Jacob's, who in his vision saw 
a ladder, the base of which rested on the earth. 
More philosophic than poetic in its quality, his im- 
agination nicely adjusted the relation of all cognate 
faculties: '* aspiring no higher than to be a faithful 
interpreter of nature; waiting for the day when the 
kingdom of man should come." Hence, his simili- 
tudes are for the sake of setting forth the truth. His 
figures are illustrations and have that same incisive- 
ness that marks his literal language. It is thus that 
in the style of Bacon the gravity of a masculine prose 
unites somewhat with the freedom and facility of 
poetic expression. A good test of his style lies just 
here. To the degree in which he succeeds in making 
this union and interaction apparent, is he worthy of 
the title given him by Hazlitt — the " prose laureate" 
of the time of Elizabeth and James. As far as Hooker 



226 ENGLISH PROSE. 

went he was not inferior to Bacon, but Bacon went 
much further as a writer, and in that respect hold? a 
higher place. 

(6.) Versatility and Variety. 

This will be readily admitted when it is remembered 
that the History of Henry VII; The New Atlantis; 
The Speeches; The Advancement of Learning and 
the Essays illustrate respectively each of the five 
different representative forms of prose as stated. 
There is a true sense, therefore, in which his prose 
may be said to be all-inclusive as to classes of style, 
while it is not to be forgotten that outside of this 
literary area he did a large and effective work as a 
writer in the technical department of mental science. 
History, Prose Fiction, oratorical prose^ didactic trea- 
tises and miscellanies are all exhibited, unified 
and controlled by the didactic as the prime character- 
istic. It is safe to say that we look in vain along the 
line of English Prose Literature for any author who 
exhibits a more varied combination of qualities and 
kinds of style. Johnson and Carlyle approximate 
him the nearest. 

Versatility in itself is not a mark of power. With 
many it is the very sign of weakness and means the 
superficial and shallow. With Bacon, it is otherwise. 
He had " large discourse of reason looking before and 
after." He complained of the statesmen of his time 
" that they never looked ahead into universality" 
and dedicated his New Atlantis " to the enlarging of 
the bounds of human empire." With Bacon, versati- 
lity was a necessity. His capacious mind demanded 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BACON. 227 

various outlets and forms of expression. He passes 
by easy transitions from history to philosophy ; from 
essays to speeches and romance. He aimed to livd 
on his own theory: "Whatever is worthy of exist- 
ence is worthy, also, to be known." This diversity 
of intellect and style makes ever new claims upon 
the interest of the reader and adds new profit. As 
his biographer states: "He had not his knowledge 
from books but from some grounds and notions 
within himself" Had his moral character remained 
unsullied, he would still be the most commanding 
presence in English Prose, and next to Shakespeare 
in English Letters. The open question as to the 
authorship of the Shakespearian Plays connects the 
two names more closely still. From the imaginative 
and versatile elements of his style, this question of 
authorship has not failed to seek material in his 
favor. 

MAIN FAULTS OR DEFECTS OF K!S STYLE. 

(1.) Want of a Pure English Diction. 

It is scarcely possible to endorse the extreme view 
of Minto as to the simplicity of Bacon's language. 
Even if we confine ourselves to his purely English 
works, there is a noticeable absence of a pure English 
diction. As in the case of Hooker and all the 
writers of that age, this defect is scarcely a fault. 
The language was in such a transition from Middle 
to Modern forms, that either grammatical or literary 
purity was quite impossible. This was increased in 
Bacon's prose by the fact that he was thoroughly 
versed in Latin lore; was in full sympathy with it 
and, moreover, the very nature of the subjects he 



228 ENGLISH PROSE. 

was discussing called for it. If not controversial as 
with Hooker, they were largely didactic and some- 
what technical. His studies caused him to live, to a 
good degree, in the past and made it all the more 
difficult for him to anticipate and farther the great 
movement in the direction of English speech. What- 
ever the causes, however, his language cannot be 
called simple. Though far superior to Hooker in the 
construction of his sentences, he is more at fault in 
the use of complex and ambiguous terms. Even in 
the narrative portions of his prose, this error is very 
common, while in the strictly scientific and technical 
portions, it amounts to a serious literary evil. He is 
so extremely fond of Latin quotations and of refer- 
ence to the older authorities that it lends an air of 
antiquity to the general style as well as to the words 
themselves. As in Hooker, so here, words have 
become essentially modified in meaning: such as — 
advise, anatomy, artificial, censure, climatic, comfort, 
convince, delicacy, etc. As to obsolete words, these 
abound in Bacon's prose : such as — adoptive, adven- 
tive, casuosity, cautel, celsitude, dictature, dolatiou, 
etc. This modification and loss of words make a 
glossary needful in the study of Bacon even more 
than is true of Hooker. Had Bacon been in more 
decided sympathy with the English and had he seen 
what its future was to become his vocabulary would 
have been more native and simple. In this respect, 
be was quite inferior to the best poets of his day as 
he was also to some of the less celebrated prose 
writers, as Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Philip Sydney. 
Bacon's strength as a writer lay in those other char 
acteristics to which attention has been called. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS,— BACON. 229 

(2.) Want of Development of Idea. 

This was Bacon's prime defect He was, as we 
have seen, fertile in thought, vigorous, versatile, 
incisive, compact and analytical, and yet, in the 
literary sense of the word, not sufficiently elaborative. 
His very terseness of statement and variety of sug* 
gestion led to an undue brevity as to any one topic 
under discussion. This is especially noticeable in the 
Essays. Many of them are painfully short. Conden- 
sation overreaches itself and the reader looks for the 
fuller statement and unfolding of the idea. Hence, 
that apparent abruptness of style which critics have 
marked. It arises from the too rapid transition from 
point to point ere the subject has been discussed. 
In The Advancement of Learning, this is less mani- 
fest but much too frequent. The treatise is made up 
of a number of principles briefly stated rather than 
consecutively enlarged and applied. In modern 
times, this error would be charged to the credit of 
undue analysis. The logical mechanism of the prose 
is often too prominent over the rhetorical and liter- 
ary expression of it. By this method, Bacon escapes 
everything in the line of the desultory and dis- 
cursive but falls into the opposite extreme of being 
too rigid and sententious. The latter is the less 
frequent and less injurious extreme, but still it is 
an extreme. The very ideal of prose composition 
is that of elaboration — the working out of the thought 
in all its forms and bearings. Analysis and Syn- 
thesis are preparative only. Discourse, as the 
word implies, is going through a subject; it is 
discussion. 



230 ENGLISH PROSE. 



(3.) Want of Literary Finish. 

We have spoken of the imaginative element in 
Bacon's style but were careful to note that this is 
present in the line of clearness more than in that of 
grace or beauty. The cast of his mind was philoso- 
phical and not poetic. All his gifts were gifts of 
power rather than of elegance. He had little to do 
with the aesthetics of life. He was a literary artisan 
rather than artist. 

One of his collections he calls: — Ornamenta Ra- 
tionalia — Elegant Sentences. In reading them w© 
find that elegant, means forcible or excellent. They 
are a collection of brief and weighty epigrams. In 
his Essays he writes on Beauty and Deformity, but 
speaks of them in a physical sense only. 

His great aim in writing was didactic. He had 
no time, inclination or ability to make discouriS6^ 
pleasing for pleasure's sake or even in the interests 
of literary art. He spoke what was in his mind in a 
cogent and often a crude form. For finish of style 
the student must look elsewhere. Even Hooker had 
more artistic grace. Raleigh and Sydney had far 
more. What Bacon lacked here, however, he more than 
supplied in other and higher qualities, and it is on 
these that his style rests as a standard for "the times 
succeeding." 

References and Authorities. 

Church's Bacon (Eng. Men of Let.). Advancement 
of Learning (Wright's Ed.). Essays (Wright's Ed.). 
Essays (Whateley's Ed.). Bacon's Works and Life 
(Spedding and Montagu). Hazlitt's Elizabethan Age. 



CHAPTER ir. 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF RICHARD HOOKER. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born at Heavitree, 1553. At Oxford, 1568. Took 
degree of B. A., 1573; M. A., 1577. Was Fellow, 
three years. Entered the Church in 1581. Was ap? 
pointed to preach at St. Paul's Cross. Settled at 
Drayton Beaucharap, 1584. Received the Mastership 
of the Temple, 1585. In the Rectory of Boscombe, 
1591-5. Thence to Bishopsbourne. Died, Nov. 2nd, 
1600. 

Prose Authorship. 

We find it embodied in one distinct treatise known 
as, The Laws oj Ecclesiastical Polity, the object of 
which was to defend the Anglican against the Puritan 
and Genevan Church; to show specifically that in con- 
nection with the authority of Scripture, that of human 
law and reason, also, should be given a place. 

This work consists of eight books. Of these, the 
first four were published together in 1594, when he 
was at Boscombe; the fifth, three years later; while 
as to the history of the remaining three, various 
views have been current. It is generally conceded 
that book sixth has been lost or so changed as not to 



232 ENGLISH PROSE. 

belong to the original author, and that the seventh 
and eighth books are so interpolated as to be useless 
as specimens of Hooker's style. 

Of the fi\''e books that may be said now to consti- 
tute the Polity, the first one is not only of special 
value as preparative, but is a treatise quite complete 
in itself, having as much reference to the general 
principles of all law as to the particular discussion in 
hand. Comparatively little attention has been given 
by literary critics and historians to the several books 
that succeed the first. On the basis of this book, as 
edited by Church, we may secure satisfactory results 
as to the prose of Hooker. 

The Timeliness of this Prose Production. 

"Hooker," says Disraeli, "is the first vernacular 
writer whose classical pen harmonized a numerous 
prose." Says Mr. Hallam, "The finest as well as the 
most philosophical writer of the Elizabethan period 
is Hooker. The first book of the Polity is one of the 
masterpieces of English eloquence and excels them 
all in muscular vigor." Such eulogiums might be 
largely increased, and must be understood to refer, 
not so much to the intrinsic quality of Hooker's 
prose, as to its great superiority to all that had pre- 
ceded it. In this respect, the Polity, as a work of 
literary art, marks a new awakening in the province 
of English thought, and in the English language 
itself as a medium of expression. The sarcastic re- 
mark of Cardinal Allen to Pope Clement, that "he 
had never, as yet, met with an English book where 
the writer deserved the name of an author," was par- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— HOOKER. 233 

tially true, the Scriptures aside, with reference to the 
vernacular prose up to this period. There had, as 
yet, been no great prose production given to National 
English Letters, though the need of it, and the ex- 
pectation of it was felt on every hand. The first 
English writers had done a timely preparative work, 
but it was initial only. Chaucer had written long 
before in racy English verse, and Spenser's " Faerie 
Queen " had just been given to the reading public ; 
but among the prose pubHcations of the Middle- 
English period, there was nothing which in scope 
and intrinsic worth could at all be compared to these 
works. It was a time, moreover, of great religious 
and literary activity. All the most vital interests of 
Englishmen were before the bar of the popular judg- 
ment. It could not, therefore, be brooked that these 
questions should be debated and decided in any other 
language than the English, especially when the clas- 
sical tendencies from Kome and Greece were threat- 
ening to become dominant. Right into the heart of 
these public movements and in fullest sympathy with 
them, Hooker entered, with his Polity^ so that it is 
quite impossible to estimate the influence of such a 
book at such a time upon the destinies of the English 
language and Literature. Hence it was that Hooker's 
great work in prose was more heartily welcomed than 
Spenser's romance in verse. It revealed to the na- 
tion, for the first time, the rich capabilities of their 
birth-tongue in this direction and made them more 
hopeful than ever as to its future. It is in this revel- 
ation of the hidden power of the language and the 
awakening of general enthusiasm in its cultivation, 
even more than in the specific excellence of the style 



234 ENGLISH PROSE, 

of Hooker, that his greatest work was done. He 
stood just at the junction where he could be most 
helpful to his nation and speech, and was quick to 
detect and embrace the opportunity. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS STYLE. 

Merits. 
(1.) Philosophical' Weight and Vigor. 

We have already referred to this in quoting from 
Hallam, and Walton means the same thing in speak- 
ing of his sermons when he says " that he seemed to 
study as he spoke; the design of his sermons was to 
show reasons for what he spoke." In discussing the 
different forms of English Prose, mention was made 
of the 'philosophic forai, as marked by various qualities 
prominent among which were dignity and sedateness 
of style. In this respect Hooker is the first philoso- 
phical writer of English Prose as distin<^t from being 
a writer on philosophy itself as a separate branch of 
knowledge, and fitly illustrates the difference already 
suggested between the technical and popular sense 
of the word — philosophical. It is to this character- 
istic that Hallam probably refers as he says, " that 
Hooker should be reckoned among those who have 
weighed the principles and determined the boun- 
daries of moral and political science." It is thus that 
the Polity enters into the sphere of jurisprudence, 
sociology and metaphysics. 

"There is no learning," says one, "that this man 
has not searched into; nothing is too hard for his 
understanding." Hooker was a philosopher in the 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— HOOKER. 235 

etymological sense of the word — a lover of wisdom — 
and in the wider sense — an inquirer into tlie nature, 
causes and relations of things. He was thoroughly 
intellectual in his method of thinking and writing, 
and often, in deference to his readers, denied himself 
the privilege of going as deep as he would like. Flis 
favorite words are, foundation, root, origin, principle, 
reason, — all having to do with the essential and un- 
seen. It was impossible for him to be superficial in 
his expression of thought. He brings into view, as a 
philosopher, the completed circle of laws, human and 
divine; descants upon the origin, nature and appli- 
cation of law; on the relation of will to a;ction; on 
the doctrine of first truths; on true and false sys- 
tems of education, and on kindred topics. In the 
presentation of some of these, such as, the final end 
of God in creation, his method, diction and general 
style remind one forcibly of the American Edwards. 
In this particular he was, also, similar to the distin- 
guished Bacon who was born but eight years later 
and whose great work on philosophy appeared about 
a quarter of a century after the first part of the 
Foliiy. 

It was reserved for Hooker to give to his country- 
men the first philosophical statement, in English 
Prose, of the nature of law, the order of the world, 
the structure of society and the functions of the 
human mind. 

Mr. Whipple goes, perhaps, to a flattering extreme 
when he says: — "Should the English Constitution, 
in church and state, he unhappily ruined, the Eccles- 
iastical Polity probably contains materials sufficient 
for rebuildiii.; the shattered fabric." Deducting from 



236 ENGLISH PROSE. 

this all that is overstated, there reraains enough to 
establish the character of Hooker as a philosophical 
writer and thinker. 

The appellation given him, of "The Judicious," 
was well deserved. 

Many of his shorter paragraphs especially illustrate 
that suggestiveness of meaning so germane to the 
philosophic style, e. g.^ 

' ' He that goeth about to persuade a multitude that they are not 
so well governed as they ought to be, shall never want attentive and 
favorable hearers." 

" The general and perpetual voice of men is as the sentence of 
God himself. For that which all men have at all times learned, 
nature herself must needs have taught, and God being the author of 
nature, her voice is but his instrument." 

" The main principles of reason are in themselves apparent, for 
to make nothing evident of itself unto man's understanding were to 
take away all possibility of knowing anything." 

" The mixture of those things which by nature are divided is the 
mother of all error." 

We have spoken of the element of philosophical 
dignity in style; it is not too much to say, that in 
the pages of Hooker, this something rises to the form 
of natural sublimity and passion, where the mind of 
the author seems to be overpowered by the great 
thoughts of law, providence, causation, redemption 
and God himself As he yields to that influence and 
embodies his feelings and imagination in language, 
the words are infused with the emotion of his soul, 
and his paragraphs have a Miltonic grandeur about 
them. There is much in Hooker that prefigures the 
majesty of Milton. 

While these passages of eloquent passion are not 
numerous enough to accord to Hooker the character 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS,— HOOKER. 237 

of an impassioned and imaginative writer, still they 
occur sufficiently often to relieve the didactic heavi- 
ness of the st^'le and to reveal the possibilities of the 
author's literary art. This passionate and poetic 
element was latent in his soul, and, perchance, with 
a different theme and aim would have expressed it- 
self in far more pronounced forms. He was a man 
of large nature and ever tended to rise above the 
merely expository and didactic into the broader realm 
of the persuasive and emotional. 

(2.) Logical Sequence and Order — Unitij. 

This follows closely upon the former quality and 
has a similar origin in the mind of Hooker. He wrote 
as he thought and he thought consecutively. At 
the very opening of his treatise he formally sta1»es 
the method that he pursues as he says: "I have en- 
deavored throughout the body of this whole dis- 
course that every former part might give strength 
unto all that follows and every later bring some 
light unto all before." He could not, as a thinker 
Rnd writer, relate things that were logically unre- 
lated, or state principles out of their natural connec- 
tion. It is this quality that, as much as any .other, 
fitted him, on the one hand, to be the champion of 
the Anglican Church against her opponents, and on 
the other, to present to the English public a body 
of prose writing marked by regularity of plan and 
structure. He disliked what De Quincey has termed 
— non sequaciousness — and next to the thought itself 
valued its orderly statement. In this respect, the 
Polity is well worth the study of the writer. What- 
ever its faults may be, the main subject is kept cen- 



238 English prose, 

tral throughout and all statements bear upon the one 
point at issue. The rich versatility of thought in it 
is not allowed to break its logical coherence. The 
key word of the treatise is — Law. 

The subject of the first book is — The nature of all 
Law, in General. He discusses it in three forms of, — 
The Law of God in Creation, The Law of Nature in 
Human Reason, and The Law of Scripture. Through- 
out the book, this great regulating word and idea is 
before him until he closes in that celebrated para- 
graph: " Of Law there can be no less acknowl-edged, 
than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice, the 
harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth 
do her homage; the very least as feeling her care, and 
the greatest as not exempt from her pov/er; both 
angels and men and creatures of what condition so- 
ever, though each in different sort and manner, yet 
all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother 
of their peace and joy." So, throughout the other 
books, this regal word holds sway and subjects every 
thought to itself It is a fine example of logical order 
tending to the climacteric. It gives character and 
basis to the style, and makes it mentally w^holesome 
to the reader. Such a style cannot be forceless. 

These, as we judge, are Hooker's two great 
characteristic merits as a p^ose writer — the philos^ 
ophic and the logical cast. They carry a great deal 
with them which cannot be fully stated. They em- 
body more than they express, and on the negative 
side prevent the presence and power of minor errors. 
They promise the reader something worth the read- 
ing, and are so presented as to be intelligible and im- 
pressive. There is an utter absence of the puerile 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— HOOKER. 239 

and the frivolous. Everything is solid and germane 
to the subject, while through it all there is a moral 
sobriety of tone that is most healthful and uplift- 
ing. These are qualities somewhat Elizabethan and 
English, and for which there is yet room in modern 
prose. The later periods have improved on the ear- 
lier in vocabulary, diction, sentence and artistic finish, 
but not in mental and moral undertone. Each class 
of qualities is right in its place and time. Had their 
order been reversed, English Prose would not have 
been as stable and substantial as it is. 

Leading Faults. 

Passing to the faults of Hooker's style, wo note 
his Diction and Sentence Structure. 

Mr. Whipple, in his partiality for Hooker here 
remarks: " It is doubtful if any English writer since 
his time has shown equal power in the construc- 
tion of long sentences." This language is somewhat 
modified by Whipple when he calls attention to 
Hooker's frequent inversions and complex periods, 
" drawing on a whole block of clauses," as Fuller says, 
•' before he comes to the close of a sentence." In this 
respect. Fuller is nearest the truth. It is, as we be- 
lieve, in this sphere of the verbal and syntactical ele- 
ments of style, that Hooker's special errors are mani- 
fest. It is just here that we must part company with 
those critics who insist that in the sphere of diction 
and sentence formation Hooker and Bacon and Mil- 
ton are to be favorably compared with their successors 
from Addison onward. Nor is it natural thus to 
nullify the law of progressive advance in prose liter- 



240 ENGLISH PROSE, 

atiire, and expect in the sixteenth century what we 
find in the eighteenth and later. We may go further, 
and affirm that it was impossible for these earlier 
writers to present an order of prose structure equal to 
that of the later. The language did not admit of 
it. It was in formation and transition, and not until 
the appearance of the Augustan Age did it assume 
a settled form. Elizabethan English was at best, 
Broken English. It was especially so in prose. The 
faults were the faults of the age more than of the 
authors in it. The writers of those days could not 
achieve literary miracles and use English as if it were 
finally formed. The marvel is that we have as good 
specimens as we do have of verbal structure. The 
wisest critics have strangely erred here, and indulged 
in groundless eulogiums, as when Dr. Smith affirms 
" that in correctness and propriety of language 
Hooker has never been surpassed." Dr. Drake, with 
his usual judgment has avoided such common error 
as he says somewhat strongly of all these first 
writers: "They have completely failed to fix a stand- 
ard for structure: "and of Hooker, " It must be admit- 
ted that the elaboration and inversion of periods are 
such as to create no small difficulty in the compre- 
hension of the meaning." Mr. Church, in his edition 
of Hooker, takes a middle ground, and is, in the main, 
safe in his conclusion. He concedes that the con- 
structions are artificial, but insists that they are not 
involved, and by patient attention may be understood. 
Hooker, himself, seems to anticipate trouble here, 
but charges it to the character of the subject and 
the dullness of the reader, — "albeit much of that we 
are to speak in this present cause may seem to a 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —HOOKER. 211 

number perhaps, obscure, dark and intricate, yet, 
this may not so far prevail as to cast off that which 
the matter itself requireth." "They unto whom we 
shall seem tedious are in no wise injured by us, be- 
cause it is in their own hands to spare that labor 
which they are not willing to endure." 

Apart, however, from the inherent difficulty of the 
subject is the unwillingness of the reader to exert him- 
self There is an antique element in the diction, and 
a rigidity in the structure of the author w^hich some- 
what impair the force of the thought, and which re- 
veal too close an imitation of Aquinas and Augustine. 
This want of flexibility arose largely from the theolo- 
gical bent of Hooker's mind, from the controversial 
character of his book, from the actual irregularities 
of EHzabethan English, and from his excessive refer- 
ence to the pagan authors. Church, in his edition, 
cites the names of nearly forty such authors whom 
Hooker quotes, such as, Aristotle, Boethius, Hesiod, 
Plato, Strabo, and others. While such allusion to the 
ancient writings disclosed wide reading and gave to 
the Polity a scholarly character, it seriously inter- 
fered vviih the presence of idiomatic English and 
modern forms of diction and structure. 

His love for long sentences, paragraphs and rhetor- 
ical periods rather increased than diminished this dif- 
ficulty, and made it easy for him to become obscure 
and cumbrous. It was the German construction ap- 
plied to English and, of course, difficult to adjust. 
Hence, a want of ease, grace and simplicity, a me- 
chanical connection of words and clauses sometimes 
amounting to pedantry, and that diffuseness of dic- 
tion with which the style may be justly charged- 



242 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Attention has often been called to the rhythmic char- 
acter of Hooker's prose, — his fine appreciation of the 
relation of sound to sense, and of the general princi- 
ple of harmony. This statement is not without rea- 
son, and yet we are not prepared to term it a marked 
feature of his style. As far as it is found, it seems to 
indicate in the author the presence of an aesthetic in- 
stinct. The poetic as well as the philosophic imagin- 
ation had a place among his gifts. 

Scores of good sentences and periods can be gath- 
ered from the " Polity" — enough to mark a decided 
advance in English Prose; and yet no reader will pro- 
ceed far without noting that absence of true expres- 
sion, lucid structure and general neatness, which 
makes all the difference between formative and 
settled English Prose. In this respect there is a kind 
of crude dignity about the style. In modern phrase 
it would be called heavy or prosaic, requiring on the 
reader's part an absorbing interest in the theme itself, 
so as to make its perusal in any event a kind of neces- 
sity. The structure is in keeping with the aim of the 
book as didactic. Everything is controlled by the idea, 
and in the very attempt that the author makes always 
to give the main thought the main place, not a few 
errors ensue, and the result is at times confusing. If 
ambiguity is at all pardonable, however, it is on such 
terms and with such a purpose. 

It is safe to predict, therefore, that the prose of 
Hooker with all its excellences will find but very 
few readers in modern times, apart from restricted 
theological circles interested in the questions at 
issue and those literar}^ students who make it their 
duty to read all that is valuable. Tl»^^ prosL^ is in no 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— HOOKER. 243 

sense popular and adapted to general needs. The 
occasion that gave it origin is past and the style it- 
self, so dignified and logical, has no attraction for the 
ordinary reader or even for the educated classes as a 
body. The mere fact that scores of words then freely 
used with definite meanings have now become modi- 
fied so as to make the use of a glossary necessary as 
to most of them, would alone make the general cur- 
rency of such prose impossible. Such words as abso- 
lute, ascertain, cause, civil, common sense, conceit, dis- 
course, are of this character. Many are obsolete, as 
impatiency, indiiferency, intentive, invertigable, judi- 
cials, leastwise, momentary, oftenness, otherwhere, etc. 
All students of English Letters, however, must be 
conversant with this prose and will gather benefit 
from it by being brought into contact with its philos- 
ophic and logical vigor. It would not be amiss for 
the modern reader of the lighter ibnns of our Utera- 
ture in narrative description and miscellaneoufe com- 
position to recur, at times, to this first writer of En- 
lish Prose in order to see the close relation of thought 
to style and the solid foundations on which the later 
unfolding of our prose literature is based. It is, thus, 
gratifying that an edition of Hooker's first book 
of the Polity is included in that series of English 
Classics so ably superintended by Prof. Brewer. This 
of itself is sufficient proof that the prose of Hooker 
has merit enough to preserve it and to commend it 
still to modern readers. 

Additional Examples. 

" Dangerous it were for tlie feeble brain of man to enter far into 
the doings of the Most High whom although to know be life, yet 
our soundest knowledge is to know thaL v/o know Elm not as indeed 



244 ENGLISH PROSE. 

He is, neither that we canknow Him, and our safest eloquence concern- 
ing Him is our silence when we confess without confession that His 
glory is inexplicable, His greatness above our capacity and reach." 

" In the matter of knowledge, there is between the angels of God 
and the children of men this difference. Angels already have full 
and complete knowledge in the highest degree that can be im- 
parted unto them; men, if we view them in their spring, are at 
the first without understanding, nevertheless, from this utter vac- 
uity they grow by degrees, till they come at length to be even as 
the angels themselves are. The sons of man being at the first as a 
book wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted; we 
are to^search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto perfection of 
knowledge." 

" Now if nature should intermit her course and leave altogether, 
though it were but for a while, the observations of her own laws; il' 
those principal and mother elements of the world, whereof all things 
in this lower world are made should lose the qualities which they 
now have ; if the frame of that heavenly arch erected over our heads 
should loosen and dissolve itself; if celestial spheres should forget 
their wonted motions; if the times and seasons of the year should 
blend themselves by disordered mixture, the clouds give no rain 
and the fruits of the earth pine away as children at the withered 
breasts of their mothers — what would become of man himself whom 
these things now do all serve? " 

Such paragraphs as these are not infrequent, and 
they mark the comparatively high development which 
the native language and prose had already reached. 
Hooker and Bacon were doing for prose what Shake- 
speare and the dramatists were doing for poetry. 
The Polity was more than a polemic treatise in 
favor of the Anglican Church. It was the written 
expression of what the language could be made to 
do as thus far advanced and in this particular was a 
masterpiece in its day. 

The way was now fully prepared for all later work- 
ers, nor was there long delay. In the same year in 
which the fifth book of the Folity appeared ( 1597) 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— HOOKER. 245 

there appeared also the Essays of Lord Bacon and the 
future of English Prose was assured. One philosophic 
writer gives way to another and the same strong, 
sturdy, vigorous form of English is still maintained 
and transmitted. Our Formative Prose, whatever it 
was or was not, was intellectually vital, and hence, 
must abide. 

References and Authorities. 

Church's Edition of Ecclesiastical Polity (Bk. I). 
Walton's Life of Hooker. Literature of The Age of 
Elizabeth (Whipple). Literature of The Age of Eliz- 
abeth (Hazlitt). Amenities of Literature (Disraeli). 



CHAPTER III. 
THE PKOSE STYLE OE JOHN MILTON. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born in London, Deo. 9, 1608. In St. Paul's 
School, London, 1620. Entered Christ's College, 
Cambridge, Feb. 12, 1625. Eeceived degree of B. A.^ 
1629; M. A., 1632. Left Cambridge for Horton in 
1632— (authorship). Eeceived M. A. (Oxford) in 
1635. Remained at Horton till 1637. Went to the 
Continent in 1637. Returned for political reasons 
in 1639 — (authorship). Was Latin Secretary oi^ 
State in 1649-60. Became blind in 1652. Retired 
from Public Life in 1660 — (authorship). Died Nov. 
8, 1674. 

Milton as a Prose Writer. 

To most English readers Milton is known as a poet 
only — as the author of Comus and of Paradise Lost 
and, yet, the remark of Dr. Smith is true " that those 
who are unacquainted with his prose works are in- 
capable of forming an idea of his entire personality." 
Milton is never more himself than in some of these 
fervid prose utterances. It is not to be forgotten 
that the prime of his life was almost exclusively spent 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MILTON: 247 

in the production of Prose. According to accepted 
criticism, his style falls into the three periods — 

1. From his birth (1608) to his return from Euro- 
pean travel in 1640. 

2. From 1640 to the Restoration — 1660. 

3. From 1660 to his death, in 1674. 

The first of these periods was devoted to the com- 
position of his shorter poems such as Comus and 
L' Allegro. The last period was occupied with his 
two great epics and Samson Agonistes. The middle 
period, which includes his life from thirty-two to 
fifty-two, or the best of his manhood, was wholly de- 
voted to prose and even then, as it appears, he ceased 
from writing in this form on account of the political 
results of the Eestoration rather than by way of pre- 
ference. " I imagined," he says, " that 1 was about to 
enjoy an interval ot uninterrupted ease and turned my 
thoughts to a continued history of my country, from 
the earliest times to the present." Apart therefore, 
from the specific character of the prose, the strong 
presumptive argument would be that we are to look 
.for special excellence in that literary work which ab- 
sorbed his best energies and best days midway be- 
tween the experiments of youth and the infirmities 
of age. This argument is doubly confirmed when it 
is recalled that during this period Milton was in pros- 
perity and free to use his pen as it pleased him while 
the return of Charles II., in 1660, opened his career 
of physical suffering, poverty and political dangers. 
Great stress has always been laid upon the quaint re- 
mark of the author himself as to his prose — "In this 
.manner of writing, knowing myself inferior to myself, 



248 ENGLISH PROSE. 

led by the genial power of nature to another task, T 
have the use as I may account it, but of my left hand."' 
As we read this we are not to forget the other declar- 
ation of the author modestly made and yet true, that 
all he wrote — "whether prosing or versing" had 
"certain signs of life in it." Moreover, taking the 
language as it reads, it is to be remembered that the 
" left hand" of a Milton is more skillful and mighty 
than the right hand of most others. Milton's best 
work was in poetry. He did, however, a good work 
on other lines. His prose is, indeed, local in its- occa- 
sion and reference. It is, also, controversial in its 
tone and aim. Still, there are " certain signs of life 
in it" and these must be detected and interpreted. 
Despite manifest and flagrant errors, Milton's Prose 
has a representative character. Though not an ideal 
or model prose, it is characteristic and deserves more 
careful study that is generally accorded it. "It 
is to be regretted, " says Macaulay " that the prose 
writings of Milton, should in our time be so little 
read. As compositions they deserve the attention of 
every man who wishes to become acquainted with the 
full power of the English Language. They abound 
in passages, compared with which, the finest declanv 
ations of Burke sink into insignificance." So Patti- 
son, his latest biographer, writes of his prose works: 
" They are monuments of our language so remarkable 
that they must always be resorted to by students, as 
long as English remains a medium of ideas." He 
justly adds " Yet on the score of style, his prose is 
subject to serious deductions." It is gratifying to 
note that an edition of Milton's Prose Works, by Mr. 
Myers, is among recent publications. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MILTON. 249 



His Prose Works in English. 

His Prose as that of Bacon, was partly in Latin 
and partly in English; the English prevailing, how- 
ever, as the Latin did with Bacon. These works 
may be said to consist of — The History of England 
up to the Norman Invasion and of Pamphlets on 
various topics. As to the History, it was his purpose 
to carry it down to his own time, but personal and 
political events obliged him to close it at the Norman 
Period. x\s far as it goes, however, it is valuable in 
giving us an example of Milton in the narrative style 
as, also, in revealing a special interest on the author's 
part in the early his^toiy of England. Opening with 
an account of the oldest British history, it closes with 
a brief account of Harold, the last of the Saxon 
Kings, while from first to last no occasion is lost to 
protest against the abuses of Romanism in Saxon 
England. 

The Pamphlets, about twenty-five in number, are 
on various subjects — politics and church government, 
education and divorce, and, with few exceptions, are 
written in English. The series opens with — Reforma- 
tion touching Church Discipline in England — and 
closes with — A Ready and Easy Way to establish a 
free Commonwealth. Of the series, nine are ecclesias- 
tical; eight are political; four are on the question of 
divorce; two are in defense of himself; one is on 
education and one, on freedom of speech. With the 
exception of the tract on Education, the one object 
of all is to protest against the exercise of tyranny in 
church and state and social relations and to plead for 



250 ENGLISH PROSE. 

the exercise of that freedom which is the right of 
every man. 

The titles of the most important are as follows: 

Reformation touching Church Discipline in England. 
Prelafical Episcopacy; An Apology for Smectymnuus. 
Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty. 
The Divorce Controversy — four parts. Considerations 
toncldng the 3feans of removing Hirelings out of the 
Church. Animadversions on The Remonstrant. The 
Temi^-e of Kings and Magistrates. Iconoclastes. Ready 
and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commoniuealth. 
Areopagitica. History of England (Britain). Tract 
on Education. 

There are three or four of these which Macaulay 
seems to prefer as he writes at the close of his cele- 
brated essay on Milton — " We had intended to dwell 
at some length on the sublime wisdom of the Areo- 
pagitica and the nervous rhetoric of the Iconoclast; 
to point out some of those magnificent passages 
which occur in the Treatise of Reformation and The 
Animadversions on the Eemonstrant." 

It is not necessary, in the discussion before us, to 
emphasize any one of these treatises save to say that 
by general consent the Areopagitica, — A Plea for the 
liberty of unlicensed printing — is accorded the first 
place among his English works. 

His Latin Treatise on — Christian Doctrine, pub- 
lished in 1824, and giving origin to Macaulay's Essay 
on Milton, is by far the most valuable prose produc- 
tion of the author. 

Confining ourselves to his English authorship, we 
shall notice first of all, — The Chief Defects of his style. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MILTON. 251 



CHIEF DEFECTS OF HIS STYLE. 

(1.) Anglo-Latin Diction and Construction. 

This frequent use of Latin terms and forms is to 
some extent, pardonable in a mind trained precisely 
as was that of Milton. He had been educated from 
a boy in the daily drill of that Latin verse-making so 
common in all the preparatory English Schools of his 
time. Before entering the university and while in it, 
Latin composition was an essential part of his duty. 
The proficiency which he reached is well known in 
literary history. In such an example as 'he gives us 
at the age of nineteen, under the title of a " Vacation 
Exercise" written in Latin and English, we see this 
early habit. Later, in the troublous times of Crom- 
well, he is chosen to the office of Latin Secretary. 
Accepting the appointment, his Cambridge drill is 
utilized and perfected by state correspondence. In 
the very year preceding his death, his Latin verses 
are republished in connection with his English 
poems. Some of his works, as stated, were written 
in Latin instead of English and left by the author in 
their ancient form. 

It is not strange, therefore, that we find this foreign 
element in all his prose. With Bacon, the use of 
the Latin arose partly from the nature of his subject 
and partly from his view as to the inferiority of the 
English. With ]\Iilton, the use of it was rather a 
second nature, the result of carefully formed literary 
habit. Hence, to a careful reader of the prose of Mil- 
ton it will appear that the Latinism of his language 
extends beneath the language itself When we read 



252 ENGLISH PROSE. 

sucli phrases as — Inquisitorient Bishops; Tempori- 
zing and Extemporizing Licensers; Exquisitest Books 
— it is evident that the Latinizing is not merely ver- 
bal. The same element is found in sentence and 
paragraph and even in the thought beneath them, 
so that the compromise effected between the native 
and the foreign makes it difficult to state which has 
the precedence. Were IMilton, in his diction, more 
like Bunyan and less like Browne and Burton, the 
inherent worth of his prose would at once give it 
power and currency. Instead of this we note harsh 
inversions and cumbrous constructions. Our atten- 
tion is called, at every point, rather to the earlier and 
cruder forms of English than to its more modern 
improvements. It is thus that Pattison properly 
speaks of " the absence of construction " by which he 
means — of clear construction. He adds, "Milton 
does not seem to have any notion of what a period 
means. He leaves off, not when the sense closes but 
when he is out of breath." There is truth in this. 
Not a few of those passages so often quoted by 
critics as examples of clear and elegant English, are 
hopelessly involved and must be annotated and ex- 
plained in order to be readable. Milton would have 
presented a clear diction and structure had he known 
'* small Latin " and given full expression to his En- 
glish speech. It must be added here that the tech- 
nical and polemic topics discussed by the author did 
much to encourage this free use of Latin idiom and 
structure. In fact, it largely made it necessary. 

The author seemed to be aware of what the English 
language could do and ought to do and is found 
giving special attention to its early forms and varied 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MILTON. 253 

uses. Archbishop Trench, in his philological manuals, 
is careful to call frequent attention to the fact that 
Milton was one of a few who looked into language 
etjraologically rather than superficially. " He is the 
first English writer," says one, " who possessing in 
the ancient models a standard of the eff'ect which 
could be produced by choice of words, set himself to 
the conscious study of our native tongue with a firm 
faith in its undeveloped powers." AVhile this remark 
applies more particularly to his poetry, it has an illus- 
tration as well in his prose. His diction, after all, is 
better than his construction. He never seems to 
have at command in his prose, that easy, facile and 
natural style that is so conspicuous in his shorter 
poems. He is here at a disadvantage and the com- 
position is labored. In this respect, Hooker and 
Bacon are vastly his superiors. Milton's style, there- 
fore, is on these grounds inferior in clearness and fin- 
ish. There are too many " colossal involutions; " too 
many repetitions and classical phrases to make it a 
model for the student. 

(2.) Faulty Imagery. 

It is excessive, crude and somewhat overwrought. 
The too frequent use of figure and principal terms 
seems to have the same effect on the style that exces- 
sive emphasis has in elocution. The very end aimed 
at is defeated. The effect of this on the reader is in 
the line of mental weariness. The uniformity is op- 
pressive. Scarcely has the attention been called to 
an image or a series of images, than it is turned to 
consider another. In the multiplicity of the illustra- 



254 ENGLISH PROSE, 

tions, we are often at a loss to discern the truth to be 
illustrated. Even the monotony of excellence is 
wearisome. The principle of contrast must enter. 
This is especially true as to figure, in that it is a use 
of language aside from the common use. If the un- 
common is made common, all distinctions are effaced 
and the style is as flat as a Western prairie. The 
faults here alluded to would be of a far less serious 
character were the imagery itself of a poorer type. 
That sublime and well governed imagination which 
safely carries him in his Paradise Lost through all 
heights and depths and which carries the reader 
with him seems to be absent here. In fine, he is, in 
his prose, working in a sphere in which there is but 
little demand for the highest type of the construc- 
tive imagination. The author, however, insists upon 
calling it into play at every point. Here is the ex- 
planation of the fViilure. The times were too stirring 
and the questions too practical to admit of any fan- 
ciful soarings and displays of art. There was very 
little of the poetic in the Great Rebellion of 1640, 
or in the Commonwealth reaction, and nothing but 
solid prose of the most substantial order would meet 
the case. Milton saw this and yet with his poetical 
nature yielded too much to poetic instinct. The re- 
sult is that the imagery is foisted upon the style rather 
than being its natural dress. The art is too evident. 
Such expressions as, "new vaulted paganism, " " the 
fangs and gripes of a boiling and queasy conscience " 
are as much violations of true imagery as of chaste 
diction. They are an awkward attempt to intro- 
duce the metaphorical when it is not demanded. 
The sum of the matter is well expressed by Taine 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MILTON. 255 

as he writes — *' Imagination carried him away and 
enchained him in metaphor.'* Mr. Pattison, in his 
recent biography, exalts far too liighly, as we think, 
this imaginative feature in Milton's prose style. If 
we interpret it aright, it is void of special literary 
excellence. 

(3.) Personal Allusions and Invective. 

It is quite easy for us, with the character of Milton 
and his times before us, to discover some of the 
reasons which allured him to indulge in such invec- 
tive. His feeling toward many of the existing evils 
in charch and state was that of a fiery indignation. 
His soul was vexed by the prevailing order of things. 
Failing to draw a sharp dividing line between the 
sin and the sinner, he poured out his wrath against 
men and classes with more than Davidic force. He 
exhausts the language of abuse and often descends 
to the level of the partisan and public scold. Scarcely 
a page of his controversial prose is free from this 
while, at times, entire treatises are devoted to it. 
Such are — The Animadversions and The Answer to 
Salraasius. H^e speaks of bishops as " ill bred sons " 
*' ravens that will pick out the eyes of Christians." 
He alludes to the " saucy tongues of the silly Holland 
scholar " and so on. He indulges in imprecations as 
David did without David's reason for it. All this 
gives to his prose a rough, ragged and violent char- 
acter which is anything but literary and makes it 
impossible for it to be quoted as in any sense a 
model of artistic grace and neatness. It is military 
and menacing in its tone and stirs up the baser pas- 



256 ENGLISH PROSE. 

sions of the reader. As we read it we are more in- 
clined than ever to endorse the author's "left-handed" 
theory and allow him, in the sphere of poetry, to in- 
dulge his strongest feelings with Samson the giant, 
and with Satan. The only bright side to all this is, 
the revelation that it gives us of the author's passion- 
ate hatred of what he felt to be wrong. What he 
despised he despised with Saxon intensity. 

The discussion of Milton's prose, in so far as it is 
commendable, is now in place. 

LITERARY MERITS OF STYLE. 

Prose passages of rarest excellence are found. 
Such are seen in his "Reason of Church Govern- 
ment" when he "invokes that Eternal Spirit who 
can enrich with all utterance and knowledge"; when 
in his — Reformation in England — he appeals "to the 
Triune God to aid him in his work against the 
enemies of the church." So especially in the Areo- 
pagitica. As to special features, we notice. 

(1.) Ingenuousness or Sincerity of Style. 

He was, in this respect, the Luther of his day. He 
wa& in literature what Cromwell was in the state. 
What he thought he uttered with all his heart. This 
lends a moral clearness to his style which is of great 
value and serves to make it rhetorically clear where 
it otherwise would not be. 

There is no greater need in prose style than this 
quality of naturalness— the frank expression of the 
writer's personality in his own way. So potent a 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MILTON. 2r>7 

factor is this in the sum total of qualities that it 
serves to make the previous literary errors somewhat 
negative in their effect. It involves much more than 
at first sight appears, such as, the writer's individu- 
ality as a man and an author, courage in the formation 
and maintenance of his own convictions; freedom 
from everything in the line of the mechanical and 
servile and a general prevalence of what is healthful 
and attractive. No man has stronger temptations 
than the writer to act as a mouthpiece or scribe 
for others in the sacrifice of his own independence 
and with no one is ingenuousness more of a virtue. 
Just to the degree in which literature is time serv- 
ing and evasive it is worthless either in a practical 
or artistic point of yiew. Milton has serious faults as 
a prose writer but he had the great excellence of Puri- 
tan outspokenness. If the writer follows the high 
counsel — '*To thine own self be true," in whatever 
else he fails he will not fail in securing the attention 
and respect of his readers. Naturalness is concilia- 
tory in its effect. 

(2.) Directness of Purpose. 

Definiteness of idea and object is one of the prime 
principles of writing. Everything in the writers 
plan must have a purpose in it and a controlling pur- 
pose. In the etymological sense of the word, there 
mnst be nothing impertinent. The language, gene- 
ral method and style must be relevant to the one design. 
Few authors of English Prose have had a clearer aim 
in their authorship than Milton. His pamphlets on 
questions of state were so closely confined to that 



258 ENGLISH PROSE. 

topic that they could well be classified in the state 
archives of England under the head of civil docu- 
joents. His treatises on ecclesiasticism would find 
fitting place in a theological library as those on the 
divorce question would in a library of social science. 
Whatever the topic, he never yielded the grasp he 
had taken of it until he had done with it. It is this 
very directness of purpose and procedure that made 
his tracts at the time so telling and awakened such 
bitter opposition. It was not simply because he op- 
posed despotism in politics and religion, but because 
he offered it as he did in a kind of challenging man- 
ner, just as John Knox had done in Scotland and 
Cromwell did in Milton's time. In fact, in this middle 
period of Milton's life — the prose period — his style par- 
took of the character of the time. It was aggressive 
and martial. He aimed his words as the Ironsides did 
their muskets — right at the mark, and when he struck 
the target, the result was visible. 

Here again, prose style may learn a lesson from 
Milton, to the effect that pertinence is a literary virtue, 
that nothing is gained by indirectness. Circumlocu- 
tion is a figure of speech and, as such, is exceptional. 
In the writer as in the orator direct address to the au- 
dience is all important. This argues clear thinking, a 
clear knowledge of the subject and a conception of the 
writer's office as a something more than a literary pas- 
time. This business-like element is not incompatible 
with high literary art and is a healthful protest 
against that aimless writing which is so common 
among us. 

These two qualities lead to the third and crowning 
feature of Milton's style. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MILTON. 259 



(3.) Impassioned Energy. 

Next to clearness this is the most important feature 
of prose style and, as far as ^lilton is concerned, 
ranks as the first. No one can read a page of 
his best prose apart from the narrative portions, and 
not be profoundly impressed. As one rises from the 
reading of such a forensic treatise as — The Areopa- 
gitica, he feels as Cromwell felt who after its perusal 
proceeded at once to establish in the realm by official 
statute that liberty of speech for which it argued. 

** When God commands to take the trumpet," he 
says, "and blow a blast, it lies not in man's will what 
he shall say." This has a soldierly sound in it and 
speaks of the masculine cogency for which he was 
noted. "Though all the winds of doctrine were let 
loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we 
do unjustly to doubt her strength. Who ever knew 
truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter ! " 
The vigor of this impassioned utterance reminds us 
of Luther at the Diet of Worms. It is the old Teu- 
tonic spirit. So in his trenchant discussion of the 
divorce question, after remarking that St. Paul did 
not allow the right of the woman to usurp authority 
over the man, he indignantly asks — " If the apostle 
could not suffer it, into what mold is he mortified who 
can ? " Such are some of those cogent passages to 
which Macaulay must refer when he says, " Not even 
in the earlier books of the Paradise Lost has the 
great poet ever risen higher than in those parts of 
his controversial works in which his feelings, excited 
by conflict, find a vent." There was everything in 
the nature of the author and in the peculiar cast of 



260 ENGLISH PROSE. 

the age to lead to this fiery utterance. A puritan in 
his reHgious tendencies and a republican in his poli- 
tics, he was obliged to see, on the one hand, the tyran- 
nical authority of the prelatical church and, on the 
other, the despotic rule of the state. His liberal and 
catholic nature was profoundly stirred by all this and 
he protested against it by voice and pen. He saw at 
once what his relation to the age was. It was one of 
antagonism and he boldly met it. It was no time for 
poetry but it was a time for prose and above all for a 
fervid and effective prose. No later writer of English 
has surpassed him at this point. He used " words 
that burn." They are often at a white heat. Hence 
his language is full of sharp rejoinder, of fiery invec- 
tive, of the boldest forms of figure, of challenge, pro- 
test and accusation, so that even at this late date 
when the issues at stake have quite disappeared, the 
reader is aroused by them and must take sides in the 
questions discussed. Already had the author defined 
poetry to be " sensuous and passionate " but he rises 
here to a different order of emotion, and expresses 
his deepest s'elf In all this Milton was himself. 
His forcible writing is but the manifestation of his 
vigorous spirit. It would have been just as impossi- 
ble for Milton to have written one of the condensed 
didactic essays of Bacon as for Bacon to have penned 
one of those passionate appeals. In this respect he 
was more nearly anticipated by Hooker although 
devoid of that philosophic dignity by which the 
earlier writer was marked. It is just here most of 
ail that Milton's Prose style may be said to be truly 
representative, and commendable. It is so in its im- 
passioned force and may be consulted by the student 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS— MILTON. 261 

as an example of the vigorous element in style. He is 
here superior to any of his predecessors and finds in 
Edmund Burke, Chatham, Grattan, and the modern 
British orators those who most fitly reproduce him. 
It is the true oratorical style of prose. These pam- 
phlets are orations rather than treatises or disserta- 
tions. They would have sounded better than they 
read. 

Flere again we come in contact with a quality of 
prose as excellent as it is rare. In common with 
naturalness and directness of purpose, it ife seldom 
seen, so that the charge of dullness or want of spirit 
made against so much of English Prose is justly 
founded. The extreme prevalence of the newspaper 
and the novel is a partial protest against this so 
called, didactic prose. It is prosaic. The infusion 
of this impassioned element into ordinary discourse 
would be of vital value. It should not be con- 
fined to the oration or to fiction but have con- 
sistent place in all forms. Genuine feeling is potent 
wherever expressed and has place in prose as well as 
poetry. 

Milton was strongest here and often passed the 
line of moderation into the denunciatory and severe, 
but it was a pardonable fault. A tame, insipid, 
soulless style is no style at all. It is a far more dan- 
gerous extreme than that of animation. 

A few extracts from the Areopagitica will evince 
this vigorous earnestness — 

"Truth and understanding are not such wares as to be monopo- 
lized and traded in by statutes and standards. What is it but a 
servitude like that imposed by the Philistines not to be allowed the 
sharpening of our own axes but we must repair from all quarters 
to twenty licensing forges ! I could recount what I have seen and 



262 ENGLISH PROSE. 

heard in other countries where this kind of inquisition tyrannizes. 
It was in Italy that I found and visited the famous Galileo a pris- 
oner to the Inquisition for thinking on astronomy otherwise than 
Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought." 

" Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely accord- 
ing to conscience above all liberties." 

"There be those who perpetually complain of schisms and sects 
and make it such a calamity that any man dissents from their max- 
ims. They are the dividers of unity who permit not others to unite 
those dissevered pieces which are yet wanting to the body of 
truth." 

"To be still searching what we know not by what we know, still 
closing up truth to truth as we find it, this is the golden rule in 
theology and makes up the best harmony in a church." 

In noting therefore, the place of Milton in English 
Prose, it may be stated that his faults and his merits 
are alike prominent. In studying the faults, we are 
inclined, at first, to set him aside altogether as a, 
standard. In the survey of the merits, our views 
change and we accord him a leading place. There 
is, beyond doubt, much room for diversity of opinion 
here. In diction and sentence, imagery and finish of 
style, he is inferior. On the other hand, he is in the 
main, clear. He is always natural, direct and forci- 
ble so that when the balance is struck, it is found to 
be largely in favor of the author. 

It is because his prose exhibits in prominent form 
some of the indispensable qualities of style that we 
accord him a place of prominence. 

Sir Egerton Brydges has well expressed it in the 
striking passage. 

** He was in his style 
Naked and stern and to effeminate ears 
Perchance even harsh: but who will dare dispute 
His strength and grandeur ? " 



REPRESENTAriVE WRITERS.— MILTON. 2G3 

The fact is, these early styles — those of Bacon, 
Hooker and i\lilton while they will not bear the 
closest critical scrutiny, cannot be spared from 
the language. With all their faults, they are iyipi- 
cal. They are so full of thought, character, dig- 
nity, personality and power, that they must be as- 
signed a large place in the area of English Prose, 
nor must it be forgotten that even where these able 
men were weak, they might have been strong had 
they lived two or three centuries later. In their 
place and time they were representative as Addison 
and Macaulay were in theirs. 

It is a most fortunate circumstance in the history 
of our prose that its first exponents were men of such 
mental calibre and that its first productions were 
marked by such depth and power. The foundations 
of our prose were thus lai(J so deep and broad as to 
defy every assault in the line of the superficial and 
false. Whatever occasional departures may be no- 
ticed along the line of English Prose from this origi- 
nal vigor, they will be found to be transient and 
indications will be noted of a speedy return to the 
primitive order of things. It is not in the Arcadia 
of Sydney; in Burton's Anatomy or in the Eupliues 
of Lyly, but in Hooker's Polity Bacon's Essays and 
Milton's Pamphlets that we find the basis of our best 
modern prose. We shall discuss more recent and 
more excellent prose writers but none more char- 
acteristic than these earlier names. Modern prose 
begins as far back as the days of Elizabeth. Be- 
fore it could become settled, it was formative and 
transitional. 



264 ENGLISH PROSE. 



References and Authoritise. 



Pattison's Milton, (Eng. Men of Let.) Masson's 
Life of Milton. Myers Selected Prose Works of Mil- 
ton. Milton's Prose Works, (Griswold). Lowell's — 
AmoDg My Books. Macaulay's — Essay On Milton. 
Character and Writings, (Channing). Essays of Ad- 
dison, Bayne and De Quincey. Emerson's Character- 
istics. Taine's English Literature. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE PROSE STYLE OF JONATHAN SWIFT. 
Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born INov. 30th, 1667, in Dublin. Educated at Trinity 
College, Dublin, 1682. Thence to England, 1689. 
Secretary to Sir Wm. Temple. Went to Ireland as 
Prebendary of Kilroot, 1694. Took Church Orders. 
Returned to Temple, 1696. In the Vicarage of 
Laracor. Ireland, 1699. Dean of St. Patricks, Dublin, 
1713. Visited England, 1726. Died Oct. 19th, 1745. 

English critics, with but few exceptions, consent to 
give to Jonathan Swift a prominent place among our 
standard prose writers. Whatever views may have 
been entertained by different biographers and readers 
relative to his moral character or the occasion of his 
eccentricities, there has been but little difference of 
opinion as to his authorship. Hir^torians speak of him 
as the erratic but brilliant Dean. Others declare 
that whoever relies upon his autharity in the use of 
language may regard himself safe, while not a few 
go so far as to place him at the very front of the liter- 
ary talent of his time. 

His Prose Writings. 

Swift was emphatically a writer of prose. It is 
true that he indulged at times in the composition of 



266 ENGLISH PROSE. 

verse as in his Poems to Stella, his Legion Club and 
The Pindaric Odes, but this was his strange work. 
Tlie remark made to him by Dryden in reference to 
the Odes, " Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet," 
would apply equally well to all liis poetic productions. 
He was even more distinctively a prose author than 
Addison himself and his fame must rest solely upon 
what he did in this department. 

First in order and rated by many critics as the 
ablest of his productions is, The Tale of a Tub. This 
was probably written as early as 1692, but not pub- 
lished till 1704. Tn this pamphlet the author uses 
allegory as the medium of expression and places 
before his readers the three prominent ecclesiastical 
orders of his day, Anglican, Presbyterian and Papal. 
Under the image of three sons of a deceased father 
tampering with the will which had been left them, 
he takes occasion to hold up to ridicule these conflict- 
ing sects. At one time, he lashes with unsparing 
vigor the extreme procedures of the Papal church. 
In a milder but an equally effective vein, he holds up 
to derision the heresies of the English Dissenters, 
takino: occasion when decisions must be made, to 
make them in accordance with the acknowledged 
claims of the Established Church. Equally sarcastic 
are what he calls, The Digressions from The Tale. 
In these, he defines the true and the false critic; 
treats of instruction and diversion ; and gives a di- 
gression in praise of digressions. In all these dis- 
cussions, his weapon is irony and he wields it with 
pronounced effect. The literary success of the work 
was unbounded. As to the general moral effect is 
produced, relative to the pending questions of ecclesi- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—SWIFT. 2G7 

asticism, we find the very chnrcli it was designed to 
fav^or regarded it as conducive to levity and looseness 
in practical religion. This is the fact despite the au- 
thor's assertion — " If any one opinion can fairly be 
deduced from the book contrary to religion and 
morality, I will forfeit my life." 

In the same year (1704) appeared — The Battle of 
the Books. This was based upon a narrow contro- 
versy between Boyle and Beutley as to the genuine- 
ness of the epistles of Piialaris, based also, on the far 
wider question as to the relative excellence of the 
ancients and moderns. 

The dispute was opened in favor of the Moderns 
by the French writers — Fontenelle and Perrault. 
Sir Wm. Temple, the patron of Swift, answered on 
behalf of the Ancients. To this, in turn, reply was 
made by Walton and Bentley on behalf of the Mod- 
erns. At this point Swift took up the discussion in 
his usual satirical vein. Under the image of a battle 
in the royal library at St. James' between ancient 
and modern books, he vindicated the old at the 
expense of the new, and dealt out some merciless 
criticisms upon the authors of the later school. 

Resting awhile from authorship when engaged in 
the duties of his parish and the state, he appeared in 
1708, in several successive papers. In his paper en- 
titled — The Sentiments of a Church of England 3Ian — 
we have the religious and political views of one 
Avho with apparent inconsistency called himself — "A 
Whig wearing a gown." In the same year appeared 
the highly popular — Bicherstaff Pajpers — elicited by 
the morbid excess to which the astrology of the 
eighteenth century was carrying the English people. 



268 ENGLISH PROSE. 

The contemptuous burning of the treatise by the 
Inquisition at Portugal exactly expressed the enraged 
sentiments of all the almanac compilers in the British 
realms. 

Now appeared also, his famous — Argument against 
Abolishing Ghristianity — in which irony is expressed 
iti essence and which Dr. Johnson is pleased to call 
'^ happy and judicious." To this there succeeded in 
the following years — 

A Vindication of Bicker staff (1709); Letter to the 
October Club (1711) — a company of a hundred Tories 
bent upon the reform of the existing govenment; A 
Proj^osal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining 
(making sure) the English Tongue (1712). The Con- 
duct of the Allies (1712). In this state paper he took 
occasion to protest against the unfair relation in 
which England stood in the Triple Alliance between 
Germany and the Low Countries in the Spanish War. 
He brought to light the sufferings of his country at 
the hands of the mercenary Marlborough, and called 
upon the nation for its own protection, to institute 
immediate peace. 

Swift's influence here is seen in the fact that the 
call was heard and heeded. In the space of two 
months eleven thousand copies were sold. The cry 
was for peace, and now was open that national move- 
ment, the approaching result of which was, the depo- 
sition of the existing authorities, the elevation of the 
Tories to political power and the final peace of 
Utrecht in 1713. Dr. Smith pronounces it " the 
most successful pamphlet ever printed." In close 
relation to this, there followed — 

The Public Spirit of the Whigs, (1714). . 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— SWIFT. 2G0 

The Drapier Leffei^s (1724). This occasioD, as is 
well known, was the attempt made by a Mr. Wood, 
of England, to secure a patent by which he conld 
coin £180,000, of half-pence and farthings for Ireland, 
so destitute then, of copper money. The patent was 
ratified by the king and about to be applied. 
Swift caught at once, the meaning of the movement 
and the animus of the man behind it. He saw it to 
be a selfish and purely personal scheme, and began 
to expose it. The Irish were aroused and such a 
storm of indignation as burst forth had never been 
seen in social history. Drapier was the idol of the 
hour. 

GuUivers Travels appeared in 1726, in four parts. 

In Part I., is, The Voyage to Lilliput, in which is 
satirized the government of George I. 

In Part II, is. The Voyage to Brobdingnag, and 
special reference is made to William III. 

In Part III, the learned world becomes the victim 
of the satire, in a Voyage to Laputa. 

In Part IV, is the Voyage of the Houyhnhnms. 
The book is a satire on the human race. 

Other productions may be cited as follows: ]\Ie- 
nioirs as to the Queen's Ministry. Journal to Stella. 
Memoirs of Captain Creichton. Discourse as to 
Nobles and Commons. Paper on various topics — 
Religion, etc. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS STYLE.— FAULTS. 

In order to pursue such a discussion impartially, 
care must be taken to connect the man and the 
author. Mis personal peculiarities and his violations 



270 ENGLISH PROSE, 

of moral propriety are to be noted as we study his 
style. There is a sense, in which it may be said, that 
Swift was a somewhat better author than a man and 
yet his personality goes far to determine his charac- 
ter as a writer. We remark — 

(1.) Absence of Literary Elegance. 

In this particular at least the man and the author 
agreed. If Swift had been a purer man his literary 
style would have been more attractive. Comparing 
his prose at this point with Addison's or Lamb's or 
with that of Irving, its inferiority is at once seen. The 
texture of his spirit was too gross and coarse to make it 
possible for him to conceive of literary grace and finish 
as Macaulay conceived of them. This defect is seen 
in subject matter and in style alike. He discusses all 
topics in a kind of rongh-and-ready method better 
adapted to the satisfaction of the many than of the 
cultured few. No one is so bold as to connect Swift's 
name with the highest forms of literary art. 

Hence, he is never more at home as a prose writer 
than in the unrefined imagery of Gulliver's Travels or 
in those harsh invectives which he pours out against 
his political and ecclesiastical foes. In some of his 
papers, such as. The Modest Proposal, this buffoonery 
descends to ribaldry and the low water-mark of lit- 
erary rudeness is reached. His Journal to Stella 
reminds one of Rosseau's Confessions. The points of 
similarity between the French infidel and the En- 
glish Dean are not infrequent. 

The fact is, that with the character he had it is 
amazing that his style is as clean as it is. His ten- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS, — SWIFT. 271 

dencies were low. He would rather pen a quasi- 
moral letter to Stella than discuss a high class theme 
oil the lofty ground of reason and moral law. Even 
if his theme be — A Project for The Advancement 
of Religion — he will succeed in disgusting every 
sensitive taste ere he has advanced a half dozen 
paragraphs. In Gulliver's Travels, especially at the 
close, the effect is simply revolting until we are 
assured that of all satires on humanity, Swift himself 
is the most pronounced. Dr. Johnson is rugged in 
his style; Swift is rude. Johnson lacks smoothness 
and finish; Swift lacks propriety, 

(2.) An Inferior Order of Imagination. 

Though this faculty has its special function in 
poetry as creative and pictorial, it has in prose, also, 
rightful place as historic, philosophic and construc- 
tive. It saves prose from being prosaic. Both on its 
mental and moral side, Swift's imagination was of 
the lower type. Even where it is free in its action 
from moral obliquity, it takes the form of fancy 
rather than that of imagination proper, and rarely if 
ever rises to the level of original constructive power. 
There is an absence of a high poetic power of rep- 
resentation as applied to prose, and as seen in the 
prose of Milton and Hooker. In this respect, he was 
far below Addison, where imaginative ability was 
sound if not brilliant. One of his biographers — Sir 
Walter Scott — goes so far as to say — '* He never 
attempted any species of composition in which either 
the sublime or the pathetic was required of him." 
In the sphere of allegory, wit and analogy, he was at 
home, but there are forms of mental actioJi lying ou 



272 ENGLISH PROSE, 

the borders of true imagery and not within them. 
Here again, the relation of mind to character is evi- 
dent. It was morally impossible for Swift to rise to 
thai sublimity of conception which marks the action 
of natures ethically pure. Such a modus was totally 
foreign to him nor could he adopt it when offered. 
The main feature of sublimity in an author is what 
Longinus terms — elevation of spirit. Of this the 
Irish Dean was devoid. He walked with his face to 
the earth. 

FEATURES OF MERIT. 

(1.) Force and Spirit. 

Strange extremes exist here among the opinions of 
English critics. Those who follow the guidance of 
Dr. Johnson assert that there was little or no force in 
anything he wrote and that those treatises which 
seemed to occasion such radical changes in public 
sentiment at the time did so through the excited pas- 
sions of the readers. Others see nothing but im- 
passioned cogency in his papers and are willing to 
credit to him all those general movements in society 
and the state of which the history of that time is so 
full. There is apparent truth in each of these posi- 
tions. The first is plausible in that those political 
changes might have been due to the good judgment 
of Swift as an interpreter of the nature of the times 
rather than to his style as an author. This theory 
would give him credit on the score of foresight rather 
than of force. As to the second view, it cannot be 
denied that some of these questions were so presented 
as to awaken and maintain attention and modify 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—SWIFT. 273 

materially the secret councils of Queen Anne. No 
one can note the signal triumph of the Drapier Let- 
ters as to the social economy of the realm, or the effect 
produced by the Bickerdaff Papers and other writings 
and consistently charge their author with mental weak- 
ness. Many of the topics which he discussed were 
of such a nature in their practical relation to the 
state and people that he could not but be fervent in 
their expression. It is true that the allegorical char- 
acter of his style detracted somewhat from its literary 
power, that he had in his style little of the strictly 
persuasive element of oratorical writing or impas- 
sioned strength such as Milton evinced, still, Swift 
cannot in justice be termed a nerveless or indifferent 
prose writer. The more prolonged and thorough one's 
study is of his real character as seen in his writings 
the more evident it is that he was possessed of true 
literary vigor and rose at times to the level of true 
passion. Some of his papers such as, A Letter to a 
Young Clergyman, seemed to decry feeling in favor 
of cold rational methods. Here he has been misun- 
derstood. He is not pleading against fervent force 
in style, but in behalf of more decided intellectual 
skill. One of his trenchant paragraphs well expresses 
his view as he writes to his young clerical friend, " If 
your arguments be strong, in God's name offer them 
in as moving a manner as the nature of the subject 
will properly admit, but beware of letting the pathetic 
part swallow up the rational, for I suppose philoso- 
phers have long agreed that passion should never 
prevail over reason." This is perfectly clear ami 
eminently safe doctrine. He holds to a wise anii 
sound rhetorical principle when he insists that dis- 



274 ENGLISH PROSE, 

course shall be possessed of as much passion as the 
Bubject matter will allow. To eome short of that 
would betray weakness; to go beyond it would ex- 
pose to ridicule. 

In fact, Swift was deeply in earnest in most of his 
writings. Against the fraud of Wood as to the coin- 
age and against what he conceived to be the political 
abuses of the time he protested with all the ardor of 
a Chatham or a Burke. 

Swift's style is in no sense tame or insipid. It 
bristles and sparkles at times, and in its idiomatic 
terseness often reminds us of the manner of Carlyle. 
Pungency and point abound. In some of his wri- 
tings which are morally objectionable and which as 
Mr. Stephen argues justly " ought to have been 
burnt" this incisive element is most apparent. In a 
literary sense, the style is, thus, readable. Its ani- 
mation attracts to the perusal of it and we are not 
allowed to become weary. 

Swift played a part here that was played in France 
by Voltaire, or by Kabelais to whom Voltaire com- 
pared him. 

(2.) His Satirical Power. 

In this he has been rarely, if ever, equaled. He 
has been aptly called — The Lord of Irony. He is not 
simply ironical at times by way of a pleasing literary 
variety but is so throughout. He is more than sar- 
castic. Sarcasm itself seems to be embodied in him. 
He was born and bred a satirist. The element is in 
tbe blood and bone. It was his meat and drink to 
indulge in it. He enjoyed nothing more than this 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—SWIFT. 275 

literary dissection of a victim in cold blood. " Swift," 
says Taine, " has the genius of insnlt. He is an inven- 
tor of irony as Shakespeare is of poetry." As he 
himself proudly asks in one of his own poems — 

*' Who dares to irony pretend 
Which 1 was born to introduce 
Refined it fijst and showed its use ? " 

This was an honor which truly belonged to him in 
prose as to Dryden and Pope in verse, and it was un- 
safe for any of his day to question his right in this 
realm. Ironical as he was, he was always the master 
of the irony and, in the main, used it for wise and 
proper purposes. He knew where and when and 
whom to strike. It is a redeeming feature in his 
character and style that he rarely exercises his sar- 
casm apart from the element of pleasantry. There is 
always visible a vein of genuine humor and good 
nature so that however much the language might 
sting and smart, it did not awaken revenge on the 
part of its subject. Addison in one of his letters to 
Swift praises him for this quality of style. One of 
his intimate friends speaks of it as his " unlucky 
quality " in that it placed him at the disposal of de- 
signing men. Swift himself speaks of 

" His vein ironically given, 
As with a moral view designed 
To cure the vices of mankind." 

He suggestively alludes to his manner of writ- 
ing " as his own humorous biting way." In this 
respect. Swift was something of a humorist. He had 
a kind nature after all and in this particular reminds 



276 ENGLISH PROSB. 

US more of the manner of the geiiiai Cervantes than 
of the sour and cruel Voltaire. In some of his 
shorter papers such as, — An Argument against Abolish- 
ing Christianity, A Project for the Advancement of 
Religion, A scheme to make a Hospital for Incurables, 
this playful pleasantry rises to its acme. Beyond 
doubt, lasting good was done by him in his own day 
througii this serio-comic method. He struck straight 
and hard, and yet with no malice in the blow. Swift 
is said to have cultivated, purposely, the cynical, cen- 
sorious style and to have indulged in irony because 
he loved to wound a sensitive spirit. Something of 
this there was here and there evident, but it is not 
frequent enough to characterize his style as acrid 
and captious. He believed in the thorough criticism 
of men and measures and adopted satire as Butler 
and Pope did and as Horace and Juvenal did — for 
benign ends. In — The Apology — which he wrote as 
an answer to those who were offended by some pas- 
sages in — The Tale of a Tub — he dwells at length 
on this very topic and proved conclusivel}^ that his 
motive was good throughout his satire. No one can 
read this Apology and not be convinced, as never 
before, of the ingenuousness of the author as a literary 
critic. 

(3.) Individuality and Independence. 

Swift is unique in personality and style. He was 
himself and no other one. In the most wayward of 
his eccentricities he was consistent with himself His 
oddness was to him perfectly natural and had he at- 
tempted to imitate any one in any particular he would 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— SWIFT. 277 

have failed as certainly as Dr. Johnson wonld have 
done in a similar attempt. Swift never attempted 
strictly dramatic writing. He could not successfully 
personate another. Even in his lunacy, there was this 
personal element. There was '' a method in his mad- 
ness" and it was his own. There was no other lunatic 
in Britain like him. As this principle applies to 
literature, it is not strange to read in a preface to one 
of the editions of his works — '' that he had never 
been known to take a single thought from any writer, 
ancient or modern." This is, of course, an extreme 
statement and yet approximately true. No prose 
writer of English will stand testing at this point 
better than Swift. He aptly expresses of himself 
the same sentiment which Denham expresses of 
Cowley — that he 

" To steal a hint -was never known, 
But what he wrote was all his own." 

In his words of sound advice to a young clergyman 
he says, in speaking of the excessive use of common- 
place books for quotations, '* I could wish that men of 
tolerable inidlectuah would rather trust their own 
natural reason iinproved by a general conversation 
with books." This was, in fact, his own uniform 
practice. He was an author in the strict, etymologi- 
cal sense of the word — an incre^ser of knowledge 
and ideas. He pursued the plan of his notable pre- 
decessor — Bacon — in aiming to add to (lie sum and 
enlarge the bounds of human knowledge. 

Swift does not appear to have been so much a 
reader of books as an observer of men and move- 



278 ENGLISH PROSE 

ments and he learned from the latter more by far 
than he could have learned from the former. He 
trusted, as he would say, to his own intellectuals. In 
so far as general reading would enable him the better 
to utilize what he saw and heard, he availed himself 
of it. 

Swift's style indicates clearly that he was a man 
who observed and thought for himself His most 
extensive productions have for their very occasion 
and leading idea this independence of view in matters 
secular and religious. In many instances, he ran 
right athwart the current opinions of the hour and 
by his bold assertions assumed the part of a reformer 
of abuses. The opposition that he so provoked by his 
ecclesiastical and state papers proves alike his inde- 
pendence of view and his personal courage, and 
when assailed he was always ready to give a reason 
for his methods. 

Mention has been made of the force and spirit of 
his style. This quality was the direct result of this 
freedom from servility that marked the man as it did 
the author. Swift had grave faults but he was not a 
time-server in an age of time-servers. In this re- 
spect, he was even Addison's superior as he was Lord 
Bacon's and more akin in temper to the intrepid 
Milton. Swift's etjde is his own. Its merits and 
faults are his. This does much to enhance the 
merits and atone for the faults. 

(4.) Good Use of English. 

No other English writer up to his time had a more 
sincere love for his native tongue than did Swift. 



REPRESENTATIVE WR ITERS. — SWIFT. 279 

No one took a deeper interest in its development and 
proper use. 

One of the first questions lie asked as to any 
scholar brought to his notice was, as to his know- 
ledge of English and interest in it. If there were 
ignorance and indifference that was enough to mark 
the man as grossly deficient. This feature appears at 
frequent intervals. In his political treatises he speaks 
of it. In Gulliver's Travels, he speaks of it; in his 
Journal to Stella, he naturally refers to it in that 
among his early pleasures at Temple's, had been 
Stella's instruction in English. At times, in the 
course of his writing when the logical structure 
would not demand it he would digress to the praise 
of his native speech. There are two of his papers 
in which he dwells with special emphasis on this 
subject; These are, — A Letter to a Young Clerg-yman, 
and — A Proposal for Ascertaining, Correcting and 
Improving the English Tongue. In the name of the 
educated classes of the nation he protests against 
the existing imperfections and corruptions of the 
language, especially as seen in common conversation 
and pulpit discourse. To the young divine he writes, 
" I should have been glad if you had applied yourself 
a little more to the study of the English Language, 
the neglect whereof is one of the most general defects 
among the scholars of this kingdom who seem not to 
have the least conception of a style, but remain in a 
flat kind of phraseology often mingled with barbarous 
terms and expressions peculiar to the nation." It is 
inspiring thus to see a master of English style re- 
buking and stimulating his countrymen as to their 
vernacular. It was because there were so few of 



280 ENGLISH PROSE. 

such reformers that Swift's position was important. 
\\\ this respect he Was taking up the work which 
Milton in his own way had furthered and which Di-. 
Johnson was materially to advance. Scarcely too 
much can be said on Swift's behalf in that he saw, in 
this respect, the need of the hour and up to the 
measure of his personal ability, satisfied it. The 
debt of modern English Philology to these earlier 
enthusiasts can never be fully paid. 

In his Proposal, he laments that " our language is 
less refined than those of Italy, Spain or France;" 
notes the various ways in which a language may 
change; alludes to the special excellence of English 
from the time of Ehzabeth to the Commonwealth; 
deprecates the excessive corruptions that came in 
with the civil wars so that the court was " the worst 
school in England;" grieves over the tendency to 
undue abbreviations of words and syllables and to 
false refinements of language and proceeds to sug- 
gest the organization of a body of scholars for the 
express purpose of "ascertaining (making sure) and 
fixing our language forever." He closes his Pro- 
posal by showing how such an enterprise would add 
to the glory of the English nation and serve to make 
the history of that day full of interest to the "times 
succeeding." No later scholar has ever pleaded for 
a special educational object with more zeal and dis- 
interested love than did Swift for this Proposal, 
This, if nothing else, would make his name one of 
interest to every English student and lead us to 
expect as we open his writings the presence of a 
master of English. Hence, we find that in compass, 
and quality of diction as, also, in correctness and 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —SWIFT. 281 

vigor of sentence, Swift stands on a hig-ii literary 
level. In these respects, no writer up to his time 
has fewer prominent faults or reads more as a 
modern essayist. We are no longer obliged to do 
as is necessar}'- with Hooker and Bacon and even 
Milton to have frequent resort to a glossary for the 
exposition of words and phrases. These are so rare 
as to afford no barrier. The language is English 
throughout and is a more modern English than the 
Elizabethan. We are in the period of Settled En- 
glish rather than Formative or Transitional. We 
have as yet met no essayist who reads as smoothly 
and fluently and none to which, in a literary point 
of view, the student of style can be more safely 
referred. 

In speaking of the author's use of English there 
are two features of style needing emphasis. 

(a) Ease and Naturalness of Expression. 

He had what is called in Scripture " the pen of a 
ready writer." He had "the gift of utterance." 

Eccentric as he was, his manner as a writer was 
marked by freedom and naturalness. Whatever art 
there was in his style was adroitly concealed and 
every movement was marked by fluency and readi- 
ness. However forced his imagery seems at times 
to be, his diction was spontaneous and always ger- 
mane to the subject. No writer had more thorough 
contempt for the affected fancies of Euphuism and 
the later French school in England than had Swift, 
and no one more fully carried out his theory. There 
was nothing artificial. One of the clearest confir- 
mations of this fact is, that in the Journal to Stella, 
containing Swift's private correspondence, there is 



282 ENGLISH PROSE. 

no greater frankness of statement than in his more 
public productions. He is outspoken and ingenuous 
everywhere and in this respect widely differs from 
such authors as Goethe, Schiller and Addison who 
adopted one manner in public discourse and quite 
another in private. 

Swift's ease of style — the absence of studied effect, 
is worthy of note. If the law propounded by Quin- 
tilian is correct and one is to write so clearly that 
the reader must understand him whether he will or 
not then Swift was clear and natural. He wrote as 
if it wei;e the easiest thing possible for him to do. 
The page is in no sense labored but facile and free. 
The reader as he goes on rarely thinks of the author 
but of the subject matter. Language with Swift was 
a means, not an end. To set forth his ideas was the 
one object and no undue attention was given to 
the medium itself Herein lies the perfection of 
literary style — that in its consummate art it gives 
the impression of absolute spontaneity. As Pope 
phrases it — " True ease in writing comes from art, 
not chance." Swift possessed this ease which is the 
final result and recompense of all art. His sentences 
read as smoothly as those of Macaulay and Lamb. 

Nor had Swift gained such ease by haphazard but 
in the line of faithful devotion to authorship and 
literary law. 

(b) 'Verbal Plainness. 

In the twelfth chapter of his Travels he writes — 
" My principal design being to inform and not to 
amuse, I rather choose to relate plain matter of fact 
in the simplest manner." 

" Proper words in proper places " is his terse 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— SWIFT. 2.83 

definition of a good style. In his advice to Lis 
clerical friend, he is especially exphcit on this 
point. The first error to which he calls attention 
is, the use of " obscure terms " of which he adds 
"that he does not know a more universal and 
inexcusable mistake," He speaks of it as especially 
noticeable among the educated " that whereas a 
common farmer will make you understand in three 
words that his foot is out of joint, a surgeon, after 
a hundred terms of art will leave you in ignorance." 
In a somewhat indignant spirit at the ostentatious 
diction of the clergy, he writes — " I defy the great- 
est divine to produce any law, either of God or man 
which obliges me to comprehend the meaning of 
ubiquity, entity, idiosyncrasy and the like." He is 
of the opinion that nine-tenths of the terms used 
could be changed to the profit of the hearer. He 
asserts the principle, that the divine should have 
nothing to say to the wisest of men which the 
most uneducated could not understand; that the 
comprehension of washer-women and servant maids 
and daily laborers, should be the standard, rather 
than the conversation of savans. He is never weary 
in speaking of simplicity of style as that without 
which no human production can arrive at any great 
excellence. He takes the strong position, that when 
men are not plaiu, it is either from malice or pride of 
learning. He holds that the path of clearness lies 
in the line of nature. On this theory, a man to be 
obscure must be somewhat perverse. Continuing 
his attack against the pride of learning, his wrath 
gives way to irony and humor as he avows, that 
all the terms of abstract philosophy have with all 



284, ENGLISH PROSE. 

their defects, one great advantage — that they are 
equally understood by the vulgar and the preach- 
er. He alludes very pertinently in this connection 
to the style of Bunyan with whose simplicity he 
was charmed, — " I have been better entertained 
and more inspired by a few pages in Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress than by a long discourse on simple and com- 
plex ideas." He felt attracted as Mr. Froude has 
been by the honest Saxon homeliness of the dreamer's 
diction. 

In all this language we have a revelation not only 
of Swift's theory but of his daily practice as a writer. 
It is safe to say that in respect to. plainness he has 
no superior in English Prose. No one has written so 
much and written more clearly. In the study of his 
style, there is a marked absence of any show of learn- 
ing; ofthedrawing of distinctions without a difference 
or of using words for the sake of using them. So 
prominent is this feature, that what is called the 
natural style of prose was often sacrificed to it. He 
preferred intelligibility to high sounding eloquence 
of phrase. He was so intent upon saying plain things 
in a plain way for plain people that he was in danger, 
at times, of reaching the opposite extreme of tameness 
or undue familiarity. Hence, some critics speak of his 
style as ordinary. The fact is that because of its 
simplicity it is quite exceptional. Nothing is more 
common than literary obscurity. In his Antony-like 
method of " speaking right on " he needed but few of 
the devices of the schools and it was his bluntness 
that offended his enemies and secured his victories. 
He called things by their right names, used terms in 
their commonly accepted senses and had no faith in 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—SWIFT. 285 

Talleyrand's theory " that language is the art of con- 
cealing thought." 

" 'Twas his occupation to be plain." As to this 
quality of style, Swift followed in the line of Bunyan, 
Taylor, Fuller and De Foe and anticipated all the 
best essayists of the following centuries. He wrote 
a simpler English than any one of his contemporaries 
Addison not excepted, and in phraseology and struc- 
ture was the most modern writer of the Augustan 
Age. In this respect, the student of expression may 
find in Swift much to admire and imitate. It is, cer- 
tainly, a matter of deep regret that the moral charac- 
ter of the man was such, and many of his discussions 
of such a nature that the true excellence of the style, 
is not allowed to have its fall effect. One additional 
feature of his style must be noted. 

(5.) Freedom from Pedantry and Hypocrisy. 

Mr. Leslie Stephen in the biography of the author 
makes frequent allusion to this characteristic of 
Swift's style. If we examine closely we shall find 
that most of his important writings were occasioned 
by his intense opposition to sham and parade of 
every sort. He was the Carlyle of the Augustan Age 
in his hatred of isms and frauds, and felt himself to 
be, as Carlyle did, a self-appointed censor and refor- 
mer. Thus, The Tale of a Tub, was as his biographer 
writes "another challenge thrown down to preten- 
tious pedantry." So, in The Battle of the BooJcs, he 
fought against scholastic pedantry as distinct from 
ecclesiastical. In the Drapier Letters^ he rose to in- 
dignant protest against practical coiTuption under 



286 ENGLISH PROSE. 

the pretense of public spirited benevolence, while in 
Gullivers Travels he indulged in a scathing satire 
against humanity itself as in turn, the author and 
the victim of whims and delusions. He feels it to be 
liis mission to expose the disguise. So, even in his 
sermons and smaller papers, satire is the prominent 
word. There is, as might be supposed, a dangerous 
extreme in all this which Swift in his style did not 
escape. He laid himself open to the charge of cyni- 
cal criticism and is not yet wholly exonerated. At 
times, as in Gulliver, he fairly prefigures the modern 
pessimists and lacerates for the sake of morbid pleas- 
ure. Hence, the intense bitterness expressed against 
him in his own day so that on his own confession, no 
less than a thousand papers were penned against him 
as a partisan in church and state. At heart, how- 
ever, he was a better man and the explanation of his 
rancor is found in his opposition to hypocrisy. As 
far as this sentiment was healthy and under control 
it added vigor, point and spirit to his style and 
made him a practical rather than a speculative writer. 
His hatred of philosophy arose from its overdrawn 
distinctions and he thoroughly believed in every-day 
sense. One is struck in this respect with the busi- 
ness-like character of many of his papers. He did 
not confine himself to the great questions of church 
and state, society and letters, but wrote on the most 
practical topics of common life even down to — Direc- 
tions to Servants. In his best mood Swift was a 
helpful critic. In his wayward moods, he was a 
cruel, heartless cynic, and not a little of his literary 
defect as a writer must be laid at the door of mental 
despondency. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— SWJET. 287 

In line, the prose style of Swift had far more merits 
than faults. Lacking in grace and high imaginative 
power and often bordering on the censorious and 
cynical, it still possessed a force, a satirical point, an 
individuality, an ease and plainness of English usage 
and a downright practical bluntness that marked it 
as superior and make it still representative. No one 
probably will ever know the poignancy of his per- 
sonal trials. The world was against him from the 
outset nor has he ever elicited to any degree such 
sympathy as has been freely accorded to Lamb and 
Goldsmith in hours of similar discouragement. That 
he wrote as he wrote amid such experiences is the 
greatest marvel of all. He has left a style notable 
for most of the essential qualities of good writing, 
save literary finish and cannot be said to have had 
his superior in English prose up to the days of 
George IL 

References and Authorities. 

Morley's Swift (Eng, Men of Let.). Forsters's 
Swift. Thackeray's English Humorists. Johnson's 
Lives of the Poets. 



CHAPTER V. 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF JOSEPH ADDISON. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. -^ 

Born at Milston, May 1st, 1672. Entered Oxford, 
1687. Traveled in Europe in 1699. Returned in 1703. 
AVas Under-Secretary of State in 1706. Member of 
Parliament in 1708. Secretary to Lord Lieutenant in 
Ireland, 1709. Secretary of State in 1717; Resigned, 
1718. Died at Kensington, June 17th, 1719. 

Prose Works of Addison. -^ 

In 1709, Steele had begun the publication of his 
first periodical — The Tatler. He had written but a 
few numbers before Addison's attention was specially 
called to the author of them. His services were at 
once secured by Steele in the further prosecution of 
the work. Addison's history as a writer of periodical 
prose literature begins here with, Tlie Tatler in 1709 
and ends in 1719 with,— The Old Whig. 

The Tatler began April 12th, 1709 and closed 
January 2nd, 1711. It was begun by Steele under 
the name of Isaac Bickerstaff and published, thrice a 
week. Of the two hundred and seventy-one papers 
comprising it, one hundred and eighty-eight were 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDISON. 289 

written by Steele and forty-two, by Addison. The re- 
mainder were written by them jointly and by other 
less famous authors. The Spectator began March 1st, 
1711, and was published daily to December 6th, 1712. 
Of its six hundred and thirty-five numbers, Addison 
wrote two hundred and seventy-four; Steele, two 
hundred and forty and Budgell, thirty-seven. The 
other numbers were written by various literary 
friends. At this point, The Spectator though not 
completed was temporarily abandoned and The Guard- 
ian was begun by Steele, March 12th, 1713. It was 
continued in daily issues till October 1st, 1713. Of 
its hundred and seventy-six numbers Steele wrote 
eighty-two, and Addison fifty-three. In June, 1714, 
The Spectator reappeared in its eighth volume. It 
ran nearly through the year with three papers 
weekly — "a volume," wrote Macaulay, "containing 
perhaps the finest essays, both serious and playful, 
in the English Language." 

From December 23rd, 1715, to June 29th, 1716, a 
paper called, The Freeholder, appeared once a week. 
It was purely political, and Addisonian, written in 
the interests of the existing government of The 
House of Hanover against the claims of The Preten- 
der and of The Papacy. Following this, were a few 
papers called, The Old Whig in reply to The Ple- 
beian of Steele; an article or two to The Lover, 
and a few scattered tracts on the political and com- 
mercial questions of the time. Before these period- 
icals appeared there appeared, the Essay on The 
Georgics and Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, in 
1697, and 1705 respectivel}^ A posthumous work — 
Dialogues on Medals — 1721, belongs to his English 



290 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Prose, as also, a treatise, in 1713, on The Evidences 
of Christianit3^ 

The Essay referred to is prefixed to Dryden's Vir- 
gil; the Travels in Italy are full of interesting refer- 
ences to Koman history and Letters; the Dialogues 
is a learned and curious comparison between the 
inscriptions on medals and various points of Classical 
history alluded to in classical authors v^^hile the 
*' Evidences " consists of a presentation of Pagan and 
Jewish testimony to Christ. Incomplete and indif- 
ferent as to style, it is important as evincing the 
author's inner self As he nears the close of life he 
turns his thoughts, as Bacon in his Meditations and 
as Milton in his Christian Doctrine, to the great 
subject of religious belief and authority. 

His Preference for Prose. 

Addison's poetry is by no means limited. It in- 
cludes a period of production from 1693, when he 
wrote in verse to Dryden, on to The Drummer, in 
1716, and is marked by such substantial poems as — 
The Campaign, Kosamond and Cato. His taste and 
talents, however, were in prose. If Milton here used 
his left hand, Addison used his right. As Milton, 
lie gave to it the best period of his life and power. 
He did not enter on prose work as a side issue, but 
as the main issue. Even when engaged in poetry 
he felt that he was, in a sense, out of place and time 
and where he could not give to God and man the 
best account of himself. At the close of one of his 
poems he gives expression to these feelings as 
follows — 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDISON. 291 

"Fve done at length and now, dear friend, receive 
The last poor present that my Muse can give. 
I leave the arts of poetry and verse 
To those that practice them with more success. 
^nd so, at once, dear friend and Muse, farewell ! 
Of greater truth I'll now prepare to tell." 

This greater truth of which Addison the poet spoke 
was that vast body of practical and miscellaneous 
prose of which he was to be the author. 

His Prose Style. 

The closing sentence of Dr. Johnson's exhaustive 
essay upon our author has become widely current. 
" Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar 
but not coarse and elegant but not ostentatious must 
give his days and nights to the study of Addison." 
This judicial opinion remains to this day substantially 
in force. Despite the adverse criticism of the modern 
French school and the modern English school of lib- 
eral tendencies, these Addisonian Essays still hold 
their ground as leading specimens of English prose 
in many of its qualities. The word "familiar" as 
Johnson uses it is not yet obsolete, and has been un- 
justly perverted by the late censors to mean that 
type of prose which is sharply opposed to the literary. 
Jt is familiar in the sense of unconventional and not 
in the sense of common. 

SPECIAL FEATURES OF HIS STYLE. 

(1.) Literary Gentleness and Grace. 

This quality may be expressed by various terma 
Johnson called it — elegance. Mr. Disraeli would 



292 ENGLISH PROSE, 

epeak of it under — The amenities of Literature, as a 
neat facility of expression designed to attract the in- 
different and please the fastidious. As we examine 
the nature of tlie times in which the author lived and 
study the particular object which he had in view in 
his periodicals, the explanation of this order of style 
will appear more plainly. 

It was a time when the most conciliatojy temper 
was demanded on the part of any one who desired a 
hearing. The author stood in the centre of the po- 
litical excitement of Queen Anne's reign. Popular 
opinion was restless and violent and the standard of 
popular intelligence was low. It was, thus, of the 
very first importance for a public instructor to accept 
the civic and social status as he found it and within 
the limits of moral rectitude to make all possible con- 
cessions. " I must confess," says Addison, " were I 
left to myself, I should rather aim at instructing than 
diverting, but if we will be useful to the world, we 
must take it as we find it." It was the author's aim 
to conciliate in every worthy way: to adapt himself 
to his age rather than harshly oppose it; to be gra- 
cious even in his criticisms of men and things and 
thus to lead the populace to higher levels. He knew 
that in their ignorance they were shy of the teacher 
and his teachings and that in their frivolity they 
were suspicious of religious severity. " I must, how- 
ever," says he, " entreat every person who reads this 
paper never to think of himself or any of his friends 
aimed at in what is said for I promise him never to 
draw a faulty character which does not fit at least a 
thousand people, or to publish a single paper that is 
not written in the spirit of benevolence." The error 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDTSON, 293 

of the time was thus rebuked while the erring were 
made to feel that the truest friend they had in Eng- 
land was the reproving and yet kindly Spectator. A 
further reason for the exercise of this affabiUty of 
style is found in the fact that special attention was 
given by the periodical essayists of the time to the 
delicate questions of domestiG life and manners in 
England. The Spectator does not confine itself to the 
outer circle of public life — to the ship, the market, 
the place of prayer and the Parliament. A more se- 
cluded area is entered and Addison is found in the 
drawing-rooms of the English homes. The delicacy 
of the position required most delicate address and 
description and a skill in literary art possessed by 
but few. As the populace was to be conciliated, the 
leaders of the realm were to be pleased. All the 
graces of prose style were in requisition. Addison 
saw at once that truth must be conveyed in affable 
manner. The most sensitive taste was to be con- 
sulted so as not to be offended. Criticism must be 
given in kindly forms and this order of literary gen- 
tleness was no more needed than it was germane to 
the character of Addison. 

Addison's style is here the man himself. His prose 
is marked by suavity because he himself was amiable 
and generous. Tt is interesting to note, just here, that 
he pTirposely devoted several of his best papers to the 
discussion of Good-Nature. He defines it, shows the 
evil that results from the lack of it; states the best 
methods of its exhibition and exhorts his readers to its 
daily illustration. By this and similarly attractive 
features of his prose, the reader, unawares, is led 
into fullest sympathy with the writer. 



29i ENGLISH PROSE. 

Quite apart from the subject matter of his periodi- 
cals and their aptness to the ever varying circum- 
stances of the hour, Addison secured his audience at 
the English breakfast table by reason of his genial 
good-nature as a writer. Tories and Whigs were 
alike charmed by it. The political pages of The 
Freeholder were as full of it as the society pages of 
The Tatler and The Spectator. Addison was wel- 
come for the same reason for which Butler and Swift 
were unwelcome. He knew as they did not the 
more sympathetic side of human nature and how to 
address himself to it. He was in this respect the 
Washington Irving of English Prose. 

(2.) Plainness and Precision. 

At this point the parallel often drawn between Ad- 
dison and Swift is a just one. In fact, their literary 
characteristics may be said to have been common to 
the age of Anne. There is a studied absence of all 
such features of style as, redundance, inversion and 
circumlocution. There was very little verbal tinsel 
for the sake of effect, and no desire to conceal ignor- 
ance under a veil of words. The average intelligence 
of the time demanded clearness. In the earlier days 
of Lyly and Sydney when the chivalric order of things 
somewhat continued, there was a demand for the ro- 
mantic and Euphuism was the result. Now, things 
had changed. The new civilization was practical 
and desired a type of literary expression in keeping 
with its character. In this respect he did what Ba- 
con did and was aided by the time. " It was said of 
Socrates" writes Addison "that he brought philos- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDISON. 295 

Qphy down from heaven to inhabit among men. I 
shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that 1 have 
brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, 
schools and colleges to dwell in clubs and assemblies, 
at the table and in coffee houses." He saw at once 
that it would be impossible for him or any one else 
to teach philosophy to the general public of that day 
in the strictly philosophic forms as Clarke and 
Berkeley taught it to the scholars. He therefore in- 
troduced it at the tables of English yeomen, divested 
of all its scholastic features and in the simplest forms 
of every day wisdom. He taught them philosophy 
without their suspecting it. It was in the popular 
meaning of the term, Common-Sense Philosophy. 
He did not endorse the doctrine that in order to be 
profound a man must be unintelligible or that be- 
cause a man was understood by the average mind he 
was thereby proved to be mentally lacking. He did 
not believe in the idea that language was the art of 
concealing thought and therefore, never hesitated to 
decry that so called literary style which was learnedly 
obscure and mysterious. The prose writers of this 
age, as we shall see, had their faults, but they were 
not in this direction. They wrote plainly to plain 
people. 

A question of interest has been started here by the 
critics — to what degree this adaptation of style to the 
middle classes modified Addison's intellectual power ? 
Did he not in common with his colleagues sacrifice 
himself, at this point, to popular weakness ? Did he 
not, moreover, lower the line of English Prose from 
the artistic to the plebeian level ? 

Whatever the order of Addison's mind was, his 



296 ENGLISH PROSE, 

clearness of statement and method were natural. 
Homeliness of speech sometimes bordering on blunt- 
ness was as much a part of him as it was of Bunyan 
or Fuller. Whatever he could or could not do in the 
sphere of abstract thought, he made it a matter of 
conscience to write and talk in the language of the 
many. So marked is this feature that it, at times, is 
carried to an extreme and he becomes, as Wordsworth 
in poetry, too familiar. Still, the fault, if a fault, 
was pardonable, and far more desirable than the 
frequent error of undue dignity and loftiness of 
style. Nor can it be argued that this in itself be- 
tokened an inferior order of intellectual power. Other 
things being equal, precision and plainness indicate 
clear and wide thinking. Some genius is required to 
present high truth in ordinary forms and it is unfor- 
tunate, at least, to view such a result as indicative 
of average talent only. In short, Addison's mental 
rank cannot be determined at this point one way or 
the other. The decision must be made up from the 
sum total of his writings and doings. It is in point 
here to note that verbal precision was carried to an 
unhealthful extreme by Addison and his school. So 
particular was he in composition, that, according to 
Warton, he would often stop the press to insert a 
new preposition or conjunction. He was as fastidious 
in prose as Pope and Dryden were in poetry. The 
greatest defect of Addison's style lies here, in close 
connection with one of his greatest merits. It is the 
absence of a deep undertone of pathos, what the 
French call, unction. All is clear, correct and ele- 
gant, but there is no literary inspiration. The 
reader would often tolerate a degree of incorrect- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS— ADDISON. 297 

ness, if so be a more emotional expression might 
ensue. 

Addison might have been less correct, indeed, 
without being incorrect and would have more than 
gained in power what he lost in precision. It is at 
this point that Mr. Taine indulges in his most pun- 
gent criticism of Addison and not without reason. 
He speaks of his "commercial common-sense; his 
business-like resolutions and maxims." "What in 
the name of heaven," asks Taine, " would a French- 
man do if in order to move him to piety he was told 
that God's omniscience and omnipresence furnished 
him with three kinds of motives and then subdivided 
these into first, second and third ? To put calculation 
at every stage; to come with weight and figures into 
the thick of human passion; to ticket them and clas- 
sify them like bales; to tell the public that the inven- 
tory is complete and to lead them by the mere virtue 
of statistics to honor and duty, — such is this Addi- 
sonian method." This is irony in essence and, yet, 
cot altogether undeserved. Verbal precision over- 
reaches itself in Addison. It was, indeed, the error 
of the age. Still more marked in poetry, it was too 
conspicuous in prose, so that the artificial maxims of 
Boileau ruled in both spheres. Correctness was con- 
founded with mechanism. Finish and fervor excluded 
each other. Here arid there in Addison's writings 
there are traces of true passion. In some of his 
Italian Letters when his soul is stirred by the charms 
of nature and art; in his sacred lyrics and other 
poetry, tlie inner life is revealed. There was some 
emotion, if indeed, it could be reached. Still, his 
temperament was not of the impassioned order. 



298 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Even in poetry it is not sufficiently evident and is 
one of the reasons why Addison could never have 
made an eminent poet. His emotional range was 
much narrower than his mental. We have compared 
him to Irving in gentleness and grace. At this point 
the comparison fails. He lacked the sympathetic 
soul which marks the highest characters in prose 
or poetry. Addison, though among the first of our 
modern prose writers, is by no means the first. Part 
of the explanation lies in his want of deep-seated, 
impassioned earnestness. He was careful to a fault. 

(3.) Wit and Humor. 

As among the Periodicals of the time in which 
Addison had a greater or less interest the Spectator 
revealed his personality more than did the Tatler or 
Guardian, so it may be said that among all the au- 
thor's literary characteristics, humor is the most 
prominent. In fact, no student of Addison can un- 
derstand him or his prose apart from a clear appre- 
ciation of this quality. There is a spontaneous 
overflow of good-nature in his papers which carries 
all before it and refreshes the mind of the reader. So 
decided is this element in the author's personality, 
and so desirous is he that every expression of it shall 
be genuine, that he takes occasion in several of his 
papers to show to his readers the precise nature of 
this quality of style. He is at special pains to call 
the attention of all aspirants in prose composition to 
the principle of naturalness as essential to all true 
humor. It was extremely fitting that in the reign 
of Anne v/hen every member of a club, house thought 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —ADDISON. 209 

himself a born wit, Addison should fee' compelled to 
take np his pen and modestly call attention to his 
own merits and success as a Humorist. Such papers 
were as readily called forth by the excessive literary 
affectation of the time in this direction as were the 
protests of Jeremy Collier against the immoral drama 
of his day. If wit was attempted, the result was 
either burlesque or pedantry. Every writer ventured 
upon the most absurd allusions and figures. It was 
the golden age of the anagram, the acrostic and the 
far-fetched simile. Not to be a punster was an un- 
pardonable literary defect. The Euphuism of the 
days of Sydney was revived. We may well imagine 
the excessive limits to which this vicious custom was 
at length carried until a literature which should be 
daily increasing in power was in danger of becoming 
a victim to the most extreme mental conceit of the 
hour. Among all the other benefits which accrue to 
English Letters from the work of Addison as a prose 
writer, there is scarcely a more important one than 
this— -the restoration of English humor to its rightful 
sphere. In every way he asserted that genuine wit 
need not be allied to gross vulgarity as was true in 
Dryden's time, but could do its best work in the in- 
terests of virtue and public morals. "Among all 
kinds of writing," says Addison, " there is none in 
which authors are more apt to miscarry than in works 
of humor. Nothing is so much admired and so little 
understood as Wit." This language is used by the 
author in close connection with that notable state- 
ment — " that the great and only end of these my 
speculations is to banish vice and ignorance out of 
the territories of Great Britain." This element of 



300 ENGLISH PROSE. 

pleasantry in the papers of Addison is exhibited in 
various ways, and most especially, in the different 
characters brought before us as mentioned by Steele 
in the second number of The Spectator. Prominent 
among these as the central figure of Addison's heroes, 
no one would fail to place the name of Sir Roger de 
Coverle\ . He is a general f ivorite among the author's 
readers and, indeed, the author's favorite so that he 
declared they were born for one another. Sir Roger 
was a large, natural, eccentric country gentleman 
and the leading representative of the old October 
Club. By his strict adhesion to Tory principles in 
church and state he was a true partisan and politi- 
cian of his time. Filled to the brim with whims and 
fancies he was the life of every circle he entered and 
won the esteem even of the great by his unbounded 
joviality. Saddened by unsuccessful love; indifierent 
to the fashions of the world so that his doublet had 
been "in and out a dozen times"; too impartial not 
to be an oracle and far too genial not to be a friend, 
he put all critics of character at defiance and is still 
Sir Roger — nothing more nor less. Whether due to 
partial insanity, belief in witchcraft, confirmed rus- 
ticity or settled intent to deceive, his acts are best 
accounted for by Addison himself as he says — " My 
friend, Sir Roger, with all his good qualities, is some- 
thing of a hermit. His virtues as well as imperfec- 
tions are tinged by a certain extravagance which 
makes them particularly his." Some references will 
justify this opinion. Sir Roger in the choice of a 
chaplain m.ade it a requisite that the incumbent 
should possess a clear voice, a good aspect and a 
slight knowledge of backgammon. As soon as he 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDISON. 301 

is settled in his charge he makes him a present of all 
the good sermons which have been printed in English. 
Of the haunted honse on his country estate he tells 
us, that three-fourlhs of the rooms are unapproachable 
on account of strange sights and sounds and that the 
only way to utilize them is to require his chaplain to 
occupy them in turn. In describing the conduct of 
Sir Roger at church the humorous Addison surpasses 
himself The walls of the church are hung with 
texts of Sir Roger's own choosing. In his capacity 
as landlord of tlie ecclesiastical estate, he allows to 
no one but himself the privilege of sleeping during 
service. In singing the psalms he never finishes 
when the others do and during prayer stands among 
the kneeling suppliants to see if any of his tenants 
are missing. Thus the papers go on, containing 
some of the richest humor in English Prose. As to Sir 
Roger, Dr. Drake truthfully remarks — "that with 
the exception of Falstaff, he is, perhaps, the most 
humorous character ever drawn." In addition to 
this leading personage we note the celebrated Tory 
Fox Hunter, confirmed in his partialities and rough 
in his bearing, loud mouthed on all occasions in 
opposition to existing government. There is also, 
Sir Andrew Freeport, the indomitable London mer- 
chant and full of the maxims of trade, xllso, Captain 
Sartoy, retired from the sea and too modest to push 
his talent to promotion. Also, the well-bred Will 
Honeycomb, afi'able and coquettish, and last of all, 
the aristocratic Wimble. In each of these characters, 
the versatile Addison finds fitting occasion to express 
mother wit. The same skill in pleasantry is visible if 
weexaminethe papers themselves as distinct fi-om the 



302 ENGLISH PROSE, 

characters. In the Spectator there may be cited, his 
paper on Superstitious People; on The Clubs in Lon- 
don, including the Everlasting Club; on Men of 
Science; his Adieu to the Liberal Professions; his 
paper on Fans and the various excesses of feminine 
attire. In the Guardian and Tatler there may be 
noted his paper on Courtship and Amorous Deceits. 
Even in the partisan Freeholder called by some — the 
political Spectator, the sterner principles of state- 
craft as advocated by Tory and Whig are made at- 
tractive to the popular taste by a wise infusion of the 
humorous. Mention has been made of the extreme 
formalism of Addison's style. It is here in place to 
add that the great corrective of this error is found in 
the quality now under discussion. Had Addison 
failed here, his prose would have failed to reach the 
popular mind by its monotonous precision. It atoned 
for the absence of passion and made the periodical 
welcome in English homes. It gave spice and flavor 
to every article. It was because the humor of Ad- 
dison was similar to that of Lamb and unlike that 
of Swift and Pope that it found a ready reception. 

(4.) Versatile and Popular. 

This feature has probably struck every reader of 
Addison's prose and needs but brief notice. It re- 
minds us of the later opulence of Dickens and Scott 
m the sphere of Fiction. He touches on all topics, 
ancient and modern; in church and state and society 
and home; in science, philosophy, history, art and 
criticism. In this particular, he is a distinctively 
modern writer, rambling in a discursive manner 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDISON. 303 

through the open field of periodical themes pausing 
at any one point but long enough to glance and 
sketch and describe. It is thus that he displayed a 
peculiar adaptiveness to the common intelligence of 
the time. In this he had no predecessor who was 
his equal. He was a kind of self-appointed literary 
representative of the great middle class of his time — 
the Prose Laureate of the People. Tliis was his 
ruling idea as a prose writer and he succeeded in 
applying it. He inclined to the desultory method in 
the choice and treatment of a theme and studiously 
avoided whatever he deemed to be outside the area 
of the popular thought and habit. Addison's papers 
were read by the educated classes, by the statesmen 
and leaders of the time. They were, however, writ- 
ten for the masses and were versatile in order to be 
the more attractive. 

It is at this point, once again, that the open ques- 
tion of Addison's mental ability as a prose writer, 
already referred to, rises into new prominence. It 
is held by some that this versatility and popularity 
of style w^ere the necessary result of an inferior order 
of mind that must atone for want of thoroughness 
by frequent change of topic and brevity of discussion. 
Others more charitably refer this order of prose to 
the definite purpose of the author and, more than 
this, to a voluntary and yet reluctant sacrifice of per- 
sonal taste to the public good. He was discursive 
because he felt he must be so in order to be under- 
stood and helpful. The one class of critics holds that 
Adilison could no more have written a prolonged 
treatise than Wordsworth could have written an epic. 
The other holds, that he preferred the appreciation 



304 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of the people to the applause of the great and could 
have been more famous by being less useful. 

As suggested, whether Addison was or was not a 
writer of high intellectual power, is not to be de- 
termined by the qualities of style in question, but 
roust rest on the sum total of his qualifications as a 
man and an author. 

This much however is to be said — that he is not to 
be pronounced mentally inferior simply because his 
style was discursive and readable. It is a theory 
quite too current and altogether incapable of proof 
that to make a simple thing complex is the mark of 
great intellectual acumen while it indicates a lower 
type of brain power to speak and write so that com- 
mon minds may apprehend the meaning. This is 
certainly paying a premium to vague profundity and 
discourages all that lies in the line of a pure literary 
fiiraplicity. In so far as Addison's prose is intel- 
ligible, in so far is it successful as a form of literary 
art and ranks above all those examples of prose 
which seek abstruseness at the expense of plainness. 
Other things being equal, simplicity is a mark of 
ability and clearness of expression indicates a clear 
head. 

(5.) Ethical. 

Addison's simple faith in Scripture and morality 
showed itself in all that he wrote. *' There are in 
these papers," he says, " no fashionable touches of 
infidelity, no satire upon marriage and popular top- 
ics of ridicule. If the stage becomes a nursery of 
£blly» I should not be afraid to rebuke it. In short, 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDISON. 305 

if I meet with anything in city, court or country that 
shocks morality or good manners, I shall use my 
utmost endeavors to make an example of it." This 
is that Addisonian morale, too decided and delicate to 
be treated with justice by Mr. Taine or even to be 
appreciated by a Gallic conscience. 

To Addison must be conceded the merit of having 
called the attention of his age to the divinely or- 
dained relation of authorship and character. He was 
in the strictest sense, a Christian Essayist and penned 
his papers in behalf of pure morals. If, as many 
maintain, his periodical prose furnishes us with the 
first example in English Letters of an absolutely safe 
model for the imitation of the young writer, then, it 
becomes a matter of highest moment that such a 
model is founded on Christian principles. In this 
respect, he placed himself in line with Hooker, Bacon 
and Milton and radically apart from the standards 
of Swift and many of the later novelists. He did 
much to establish the ethical character of our popular 
prose and was in every sense a writer of Good 
English. 

This Addisonian influence still remains among us. 



\ Critical Ability. 

Before leaving the discussion of Addison s prose 
style there remains a topic of special interest. — We 
refer to the open question of his Critical Ability a^ 
indicated in his distinctively critical papers. Wa< 
it superficial or thorough and philosophic? On the 
one side, are found the names of Hood and Stewart 
and oa the other, those of Johnson, Drake and Aiken, 



306 ENGLISH PROSE. 

while all tbe later historians of our literature commit 
themselves to one of these two positions. The spe- 
cific attention which Addison devoted to this de- 
partment of prose was by no means limited. In 
many of his papers which cannot be classed as crit- 
ical throughout, is found at frequent intervals, the 
studied expression of critical views on current topics. 
In addition to his remarks on Wit and Humor al- 
ready indicated, critical papers are given on — the 
Opera, Tragedy and Comedy, Early English Poetry, 
English Language, Genius, Poetry of Pindar, Litera- 
ture, Oratory, Poetry, Music, The Art of Composition, 
Pope's Essay on Criticism, The Pleasures of the 
Imagination and, as most important. The Paradise 
Lost of Milton. This last production in common 
with most of the others, has been made the occasion 
of severe remark. The view which Drake attempts 
to establish is a plausible one and in the author's 
favor as a writer bent on the people's good. On this 
theory, the national habit and literary taste were 
such at the time that the people would not and could 
not accept abstract criticism. Addison being desir- 
ous of calling their attention to topics of substantial 
interest, felt bound to adopt the informal method 
which he did in place of the rigid systems of Aris- 
totle and Boileau. While the beauties or blemishes 
of any particular writer might be so indicated as 
that all could see and estimate them aright, he knew 
that his object would be quite defeated if the reader 
were invited formally to a learned discussion upon 
the nature of beauty. He knew that if the subject 
of poetry was to be presented successfully to the pub- 
lic of his day it was to be by objective example and 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— ADDISON. 307 

not by subjective analysis. It was merely a cboice 
of methods — the technical or the simple. He delib- 
erately chose the latter and for the same reason that 
he chose a versatile and popular style, in all his prose. 
This informal method he applied to Milton's great epic 
after it had been well-nigh consigned to oblivion by the 
excesses of the Restoration and Revolution of 1688. 

To Addison's critical study of Paradise Lost was 
directly due that reawakening of English interest in 
the poetry of Milton which had fur its immediate 
result the revival of interest in literature itself and 
for its final result, the elevation of public taste. Just 
here, it is in place to note the quality of Addison's 
imagination as bearing on the estimate of his critical 
power. He speaks of " a sound imagination as next 
to a clear judgment and a good conscience the 
greatest blessing of life." In this emphatic use of 
the word, sound, the author has given us the best 
description of this faculty as he possessed and used 
it. It was sound rather than sublime; healthy rather 
than brilliant. It was Baconian in its purity with- 
out the Baconian strength and richness. As far as 
it went, it was normal and potent. It went, how- 
ever, but a comparatively short distance beyond the 
bounds of actual life. There was not that mental 
reach and surety which ever mark the action of 
genius. Addison's critical ability in literature may 
be judged here aright when it is said that it was not 
in his power to have given the best criticism of 
Paradise Lost and kindred works because of the 
absence of that creative and constructive imagina- 
tion which must to some degree exist in the censor 
as well as in the poet. 



308 ENGLISH PROSE, 

It was sound but did not soar high enough above 
the earth to see the supernal and subUme. It is thus, 
that in Addison's papers we must content ourselves 
with fable and allegory; with fancy and picture, and 
not too earnestly seek the presence of " sacred inven- 
tion." Addison's critical prose is a safe and helpful 
order of prose but not the highest. He did good 
work here but his forte was elsewhere. It was 
rather in the sphere of life and manners than in that 
of literary art that his critical power was best ap- 
plied. He wrote better about men and things than 
about books. 

In a word, Addison's prose style, whatever its 
merits or demerits, was a better practical style than 
any that preceded the Augustan Age; was in keep- 
ing with the needs and spirit of the time and fixed 
in a real sense a standard of prose on the basis of 
which later authors have built better and still better 
forms. Take it together, no writer of his day wrote 
a better English and while many of his successors 
have wielded an abler pen in the realm of prose, no 
one of them has used the talent that he had to bet- 
ter advantage and no one of them would be spared 
from our literary records with more ingenuous 
regret. 

There is such an order of prose style, still, as the 
Addisonian. In common with the Johnsonian and 
De Quinceyan, it holds a place and holds its own. 
The Spectator and Tatler are now little read but the 
prose of their author has become an historic and es- 
sential part of English Letters and English Styla 
Macaulay and Dickens have written better because 
he wrote so well and every English literary histo- 

\ 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.^ADDISON. 309 

rian must still concede the fact of his presence and 
his power. 

References and Authorities. 

Courthope's Addison (Eng. Men of Let.) Essays 
of Macaulay. Taine's History of Eng. Lit. Thack- 
eray's Eng. Humorists. The Spectator. Kellogg's 
Eng. Lit. 



CHAPTER YI. 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born at Lichfield, Sept. 18th, 1709. In Oxford, 
1728. Obliged by poverty to withdraw. Usher of 
a school at Bosworth, 1731. Working for booksel- 
lers in Birmingham. Went to London, 1737, for 
literary work. A parliamentary reporter, 1740. On 
a pension, 1762. Visited Scotland, 1773. Died, Dea 
13th, 1784. 

His Prose Writings. 

We shall not attempt to mention in detail the vari- 
ous works of this illustrious author. In aiming to 
reach a true analysis and theory of his style, the 
most noted of these are sufficient, as follows: 

Periodical — The Rambler, and The Idler. The Ro- 
mance — Rasselas {VYincQ of Abyssinia). The Lives of 
The English Poets. 

His work as a writer of political pamphlets, as a 
lexicographer and as an editor and commentator of 
Shakespeare will not be overlooked, as they evince 
certain qualities which enter vitally into the struc- 
ture of his style. In the few productions mentioned 
it will be noted that with the exception of oratorical 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS,— JOHNSON. 311 

prose we find illustrated all the forms of prose to 
wliicli attention lias been called — narrative, descrip- 
tive, philosophic and miscellaneous. Though he was 
not as voluminous an author as some it is difficult to 
see the justness of i\Ir. Stephen's statement, "Few 
men whose lives have been dfevoted to letters for an 
equal period have left behind them such scanty and 
inadequate remains." Few, we may add, have left so 
strong an impression upon their age. 

EXAMINATION OF HIS STYLE. 
(1.) Its Anglo-Latin Element. 

This is one of the first features that impress the 
reader as he studies this prose structure and diction 
and it becomes more manifest as the perusal goes on. 
With many, it occasions prejudice at the outset and 
prevents any continuous and impartial examination 
of the author. Most men are too definite in purpose 
to read the Rambler and too busy to read the Idler. 
There is a widespread antipathy by way of presump- 
tion against the Johnsonian Style in this regard so 
that many even among the educated must confess to 
an utter ignorance of the pages that they pronounce, 
Latinized. Few, if any, of the authors biographers 
and critics have avoided extreme positions here. If 
Boswell is too flattering, Hawkins is too critical. If 
Macaulay errs on one side, Taine errs on the other. 
Drake and Hallam come nearest to a just estimate. 

His diction is beyond question a mixed one. The 
foreign element is prominent enough to call attention 
to it as foreign and thus to detract from its native 



"312 ENGLISH PROSE. 

simplicity, as seen in Swift and Addison. Tlie 
student of English must, thus, be cautioned against 
an excessive deference to Dr. Johnson's phraseology 
lest he go even to greater lengths than his model and 
end ill the veriest pedantry. The diction of the 
Rambler is a distinctively classical diction. It is 
English in Latin dress. In his antipathy to the 
French he favored the Latin unduly. In his excel- 
lent preface to his EiigUsh Dictionary he thus states 
— '•' that our language for about a century has been 
deviating toward a Gallic structure and phraseology 
from which it ought to be our endeavor to recall it." 
He abhorred all Gallicism, but in deference to the in- 
fluence of such authors as Sir Thomas Browne and by 
reason of his personal classical attainments, he gave 
undue weight to the idioms of Rome. It is thus that 
we have such terms as — obstreperous, ratiocination 
and adumbrate — in great profusion. In his effort to 
state to his readers that practical lessons are to be 
learned only in the school of life he says — " Exper- 
ience soon shows us the tortuosities of imaginary 
rectitude, the complications of simplicity and the as- 
perities of smoothness." He wishes to give a clear 
description of the different processes through which 
the ladies at their toilets pass and he writes — ''They 
pass through the cosmetic discipline covered with 
emollients and painted with artificial excoreations." 
Such constructions might be greatl}^ multiplied. It 
was, probably, amid such literary thickets that Mr. 
Taine found himself when he said — " We turn over 
the pages of his Dictionary, his eight volumes of 
essays, his ten volumes of biographies, his numberless 
articles and we yawn'' 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—JOHNSON, 313 

In this respect Johnson failed just where Bunyan 
and Swift excelled and to this degree made it impos- 
sible to secure for his writings the popular eye. This 
being admitted, there are certain modifications that 
deserve mention and go far to admit us to the real 
nature of the Johnsonian style. 

(a) Tills Latiiiic element is not offensively present 
in all of his writings. Most of the extreme criticisms 
offered have been based upon a study of The Ram- 
bler. Up to this point, the criticism is just. These 
essays probably contain as much of this foreign caste 
as all his other works combined. The author s style 
simplified somewhat as it went on. He made the 
study of phraseology more a matter of "literary care 
and conscience so that the difference between The 
Rambler and the later works is noticeable. Johnson 
seemed to be aware of his own defect and anxious to 
amend it. He admits that he is inclined to " use too 
big words and too many of them." He says to Bos- 
well concerning The Rambler " that it is too wordy." 
In The Adventurer and The Idler there is more direct 
statement. In Rasselas, much of the crude and burly 
style of the earlier writings gives place to a genuine 
pathos while in, The Lives of the Poets there is a 
quality of diction and an order of structure that may 
well be compared to that of any preceding writer. 

(6) The state of Intelligence somewhat warranted 
a more studied style. Nearl}^ forty years had passed 
since the completion of the last volume of The Spec- 
tator and we find in Johnson's time a generation of 
people trained in Addisonian days. The mental 
status of the masses at the opening of the eighteenth 
century was one thing and in the latter half, quite 



314 ENGLISH PROSE, 

another. What might have been justifiable in John- 
son would not have been so in Addison. This is, in 
fact, what Mr. Stephen means when he says, '' John- 
son's style is characteristic of the epoch. Attempts 
are made to restore philosophical conceptions and 
though Addison is still a ,kind of sacred model, the 
best prose writers are beginning to aim at a more 
complex structure of sentence. Accordingly, John- 
son's style acquired something of the old elaboration." 
This is all true and in point. In addition to change of 
literary type, there was a radical change in social 
modes and activities; in the mechanical and practical, 
in the spirit of the age so that we are not to be sup- 
posed as we open the Rambler to find the innocent 
simplicity of Addison give way to a more cogent and 
aggressive style. 

(c) Such a phraseology as Johnson used was fully 
in keeping with his cliarader and 'personal habit. No 
style in English Prose has been more decidedly the 
expression of the author behind it. In all his actions 
and ways he was precisely what Garrick meant when 
he called him "a tremendous companion." His tre- 
mendousness was a vital part of his nature. What- 
ever Dr. Johnson was or was not, he was always him- 
self. Though it might have been a misfortune that 
he was not more simple in style, it was less unfor- 
tunate than the result would have been had he at- 
tempted to be so unnatural as to be as simple as 
Addison. Nature made him on a very large pattern. 
All that he was and did was large. When he began 
to write, the words were as a matter of course, "big, 
swelling words " of the same portly make as their 
author. His literary work reflected his mental and 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —JOHNSON. 315 

even physical self and <^liis consistency went far to 
atone for the " tremendousness " of the diction. 

{d) His Theory as to Diction icas correct. 

In addition to these considerations just stated it 
must be urged that Johnson's theory of diction was a 
very high one and he aimed to realize it. He never 
omits the opportunity of praising simplicity of style 
in others; calls attention to it in literature and de- 
votes some of his papers to its discussion. In the 
85th, 115th and 138th numbers of the Adventurer, 
after taking his text from Lord Bacon's essay on read- 
ing, he gives his views on various literary topics and 
dwells with special emphasis upon the subject of Dic- 
tion as founded on the purest prose models. In num- 
ber 70 of the Idler, the author gives all that could be 
desired on the subject of phraseology and general 
style. He tells us " that to find the nearest way from 
truth to truth is the best proof of a healthful mind.'' 
He states "that if an author writes to be admired 
rather than understood he counteracts the first end 
of writing." He avows to Boswell, that he conscien- 
tiously opposed the use of uncommon terms and had 
really introduced into the language but four or five 
new words. In the last paper of The Rambler, he 
speaks of his arduous efi'orts to refine the language. 
In justification of his use of unusual terms he says, 
" When common words were less pleasing to the ear 
or less distinct I have familiarized terms of philoso- 
phy applying them to popular ideas, but have rarely 
admitted any word not authorized by former writers." 
Among the statements made in the Preface to his 
Dictionary, he indicates the true relation of native to 
foreign words as he says, " I believe that whoever 



316 ENGLISH PROSE. 

knows the English tongue in its present extent will 
be able to express his thoughts without further help 
from other nations." Even in the pages of Rasselas 
verbal vagueness is condemned while in number 36 
of The Idler we find a satire on obscurity of stjde 
under the title of — Terrific Diction. Some extracts 
from this paper will be of interest. — 

"There are men," he says, " who seem to think no- 
thing so much the characteristic of a genius as to do 
common things in an uncommon manner — like Hudi- 
bras, to tell the clock by Algebra or like the young 
lady in Dr. Young's satires, to drink tea by strata- 
gem, in fine, to quit the beaten track only because it 
is known." He calls it "the bug-bear style by which 
the most evident truths are made obscure, causing 
the author to pass among his readers as the disguised 
dancer in the masquerade." A mother tells her chil- 
dren, that two and two make four. The children 
remember and apply it in life. When they are fur- 
ther told " that four is a certain aggregate of units, 
that all numbers being only the repetition of a imit 
which though not a number itself is the original of 
all numbers," the children either run away in fright 
or remain to learn once again that two and two make 
four. These references might be increased to show 
clearly that Dr. Johnson's general theory of style, 
and, especially, of diction was as high as can be held 
and that as far as in him lay, he verified it. We can 
scarcely believe the theory to be that of the Johnson 
of Boswell's biography, but so it is. He is the last 
one from whom we expect discussions on vagueness 
and ambiguity of phrase. 

Macaulay in his trenchant review of Boswell's Life 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— JOHNSON. 317 

of Johnson writes — " It is well known that he made 
less use than any other eminent writer of those 
strong, plain words — Anglo-Saxon or Norman-French 
— of which the roots lie in the inmost depths of our 
language ; that he felt a vicious partiality for terms, 
which, long after our own speech had been fixed, 
were borrowed from the Greek and Latin and which, 
therefore, even when lawfully naturalized, must be 
considered as born aliens, not entitled to rank with 
the King's English." 

This is a just criticism upon the author's diction. 
His diction was Latinic, though less and less as his 
style advanced. It was in keeping, as such, with 
the man and the age and quite opposed to that 
theory of simplicity which he was ever urging, but 
which he could not possibly illustrate as he wished. 
There are some things that elephants cannot do. 
They cannot tread softly or walk upon the points of 
pins. 

(2.) The Want of Flexibility and Adaptation. 

This applies to subject matter as well as to method 
and external form. 

We know from his conversations with Boswell that 
he had seen much of the world of his day and had as 
he thought, no slight knowledge of human nature, 
still his observation and experience were but partial. 
A close examination of his life will reveal the fact 
that, after all, it was confined to the garret, tavern 
and club. These served the purpose of a studio, par- 
lor and kitchen. Tis true that he made a journey 
to the Hebrides and to the Continent; that he waa 



318 ENGLISH PROSE. 

much in the streets of London and in the homes of 
the great, still the most of his life was passed just be- 
neath the rafters or in the back rooms of the Essex 
or Turk's Head. " Nobody," says Macaulay, " was so 
conversant with all the forms of life as seen from Is- 
lington to the Thames and from Hyde-Park corner to 
Mile-end Green, but his philosophy stopped at the 
first turnpike-gate. He had studied, not the genus 
man, but the species, Londoner." It is to be empha- 
sized here that his extreme poverty and strong ten- 
dencies to melancholy made it impossible for him to 
attain to anything like a spacious and healthful view 
of life. The limits of his life were too narrow to ad- 
mit of much diversity. His style was affected by 
these circumstances and especially in the line of want 
of adaptiveness to all classes and phases. His method 
was rigid and mechanical and the same to all. He 
would talk to Goldsmith and Savage and the artisan 
in the same manner. Whatever the topic might be, 
the treatment of it was the same. The narrative, 
descriptive, didactic and critical were all run in the 
same mold and branded with the common mark. 
They are all in the phrase of Macaulay, " Johnsonese." 
His prose style, as his body, was very much opposed 
to change. Starting in one direction and at a certain 
pace he maintained it to the end. In all this he was 
true to his nationality. In that he was lethargic, he 
was English. The phlegmatic element in him was 
native to the realm. The GalHc verve and sprightli- 
iiess was as foreign to him as it was to his country. 
He was constitutionally and mentally heavy and 
could not face about at will. There are few scenes in 
literary history so amusing as when this ponderous 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— JOHNSON'. 319 

man attempts to be playful and unbend himself to 
passing changes. While be is unbending, the oppor- 
tunity passes. Here, as in the case of diction, natur- 
alness covers many sins. The very uniformity of his 
prose is natural. It is a fault and yet modified by the 
fact that it is purely individual and characteristic. 

It is very common for literary historians to com- 
pare and contrast Johnson and Addison. With 
reference to the quality now before us they were op- 
posites. Johnson's defect is Addison's merit. Va- 
riety was the spice of the early Augustan prose. It 
was adaptive to all forms of popular life and all grades 
of culture. It had, as we have seen, an intelligible 
word for every one and just in season. It was every- 
thing but monotonous. It is very instructive to note 
how often Johnson himself refers to such a feature 
by way of praise and as contrasted with his own 
unyielding style. He writes — " Among the various 
censures which the unavoidable comparison of my 
performances with those of my predecessors has pro- 
duced, there is none more general than that of uni- 
formity." In number ten of the Rambler, he alludes 
to the same censure and is candid enough to state 
the views of others on this point. One of the letters 
written by a lady on behalf of her sex takes up the 
old objection and says — *'that the readers of the Ram- 
bler cannot help a wish, that he would, now and then, 
like his predecessors, throw in some papers of a gay 
and humorous turn." Another lady far more sharply 
desires to know who his friends are, what his amuse- 
ments and ways are and whether he is a person now 
alive. If he is a mere essayist, and bothers not him- 
self with the manners of the age, she tells him, that 



320 ENGLISH PROSE. 

even the criticisms of an Addison will not save him 
from neglect. Lady Kacket " hopes to see the Ram- 
bler interspersed with living characters." The com- 
pliment and censure thus go on. The author accepts 
each in good spirit and in the way of pleasant irony 
enters into correspondence with his critics. The 
result is, that he confesses his lack of adaptation and 
Bays '* that a daily writer ought to view the world." 
In partial palliation of this uniformity of topic and 
method, it is to be noted that he was, with scarcely 
an exception, the only contributor to his periodicals. 
He had no colleagues as Addison and Steele had. 
This fact in connection with his multiplied duties and 
his didactic work as a lexicographer made it difficult 
for him to be varied and versatile. This apart, how- 
ever, the style is lacking in diversity and is dull 
up to the borders of moroseness. For this and 
other reasons, it is not surprising to hear the author 
state "that the number of his friends was not great 
and that he had never been worshipped by the pub- 
lic." Masculine thought presented in foreign idiom 
and unvarying sameness of form will have but few 
readers in any age. In the early Georgian Era, such 
a style was intolerable and yet this sober minded 
author is not altogether sorry that he had failed to 
please all classes. In his closing Rambler he writes 
— " I have never complied with temporary curiosity. 
I have seen the meteors of fashion rise and fall with- 
out any attempt to add a moment to their duration. 
They were only expected to pursue them whose pas- 
sions left them leisure for abstract truth and whom 
virtue could please by its marked dignity." 

In fine, Johnson was never designed to be a sue- 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRI TE RS. — JOHNS ON. 8 2 1 

cessful periodical essayist. He iiad a better field in 
biography, lexicography and general criticism. He 
was far more th.au a miscellaneous essayist and in 
this respect was the superior of Addison. Sucii 
critics as De Quincey are led to speak in high terms 
of Johnson's style not so much on the basis of his 
periodical work as on that of his entire work as an 
author and commentator. 

(3.) Absence of Impassioned Energy. 

This is a failure common to periodical writing. 
The want of consecutive discussion in such an order 
of prose is a partial explanation of this. The topics 
are too varied and the limits too narrow for the 
generation of passion. Miscellaneous and oratorical 
prose exclude each other. In no English essayist 
after Milton and up to the time of the author is this 
emotive element at all prominent. If we examine 
the long list of periodicals issued between the time 
of the Tatler, in 1709 and that of the Spy, in 1809, 
the vast majority are penned either in deference to 
the frivolities of the day or made up of the common 
platitudes on morality and social order. There is 
anything but unction and persuasive feeling. Mr. 
Taine's criticisms upon Addison and the Augustan 
essayists as to this defect are in place. In Johnson, 
the defect is even more pronounced. As we peruse 
his pages, we seek nothing so much and so vainly as 
the presence of deep and expressive emotion. We 
read conscientiously rather than sympathetically. 
There is nothing magnetic and inspiring; nothing to 
elicit fervid feeling or high resolve. It does not 



322 ENGLISH PROSE. 

absorb us as we read. It is didactic to a fault so that 
we are taught by way of penance and are not son y 
when school is dismissed. Tliere is a good deal of 
the pedagogue in this and we, at times, are inclined 
to revolt. This element was undoubtedly deepened 
by his natural seriousness of mind often tinged with 
melancholy. Had it not been for this inherited de- 
spondency, his large nature might have been health- 
fully tender and his style, impassioned. In his best 
hours he was not devoid of susceptibility and inca- 
pable of feeling. His profound sympathy for the 
poor; his affection for his chosen friends and his 
indignation against what he felt to be wrong, reveal 
a sensitive nature. In his most mature life, this is 
not altogether absent, still, the bent was toward the 
sombre and despondent. He rarely rises in his style 
to anything like an emotive climax. There is noth- 
ing of the projective force of the orator or of the 
writer who at all hazards must impress the truth. 
He declares the truth but does not deliver it. He 
deems it to be sufficient to instruct. Others must 
inspirit. In all this, Johnson was himself again and 
did a work committed to him. His successes and his 
failures were his own. 

As to the defects of style, thus mentioned, it is to 
be noted, that they are confined to his tvritten tJiought. 
All his biographers from Boswell to Stephen have 
marked the vital difference in eJohnson the writer 
and Johnson, the talker, ""When he talked," says 
Maeaulay, *' he clothed his wit and his sense in forci- 
ble and natural expressions. As soon as he took his 
pen in hand, his style became systematically vicious. 
The expressions which came first to his tongue were 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS,— JOHNSON. 323 

simple, energetic and picturesque. When he wrote 
for publication, he did his .sentences out of English 
into Johnsonese." " There are times," says Stephen, 
"at which his writing takes the true, vigorous tone 
of his talk." There is no author in English prose in 
whom this difference as to written and spoken dis- 
course is so marked. In conversation, his diction was 
pungent and idiomatic; his method ever varied and 
his manner marked by personal force and feeling. 
In that sphere he excelled just where in authorship 
he failed and paradoxical as it may seem, was equally 
natural in each role. We can scarcely conceive of 
him talking as he wrote or writing as he talked. He . 
had a kind of dual personality. One was for the 
coffee-house and street; the other was for the desk. 
Boswell gives us more of the former than of the latter, 
and for this reason is readable. It still remains for 
some psyclio logical critic to co-ordinate these two 
personalities or to show why the one did not more 
fully influence the other. 

In the discussion of Johnson's style as to defects 
it is scarcely necessary to add that of — Literary 
Grace. Tiie absence of such a quality is but the 
natural result of those defects already suggested. It 
is thus, that the figurative element is not marked. 

It remains to state the merits of his prose style. 

(1.) Substantial Clearness. 

Despite his Latinic diction, want of variety and 
passion, Johnson's meaning is generally intelligible. 
Dr. Drake in his lectures on — The Rambler, calls 
special attention to this feature and remarks: " Pre- 



324 ENGLISH PROSE. 

cision in the adoption and use of terms is peculiarly 
the characteristic of Johnson's composition." This 
may be extreme and, yet, attention should be called 
to the important fact that clearness in writers is a 
relative quality depending on the nature of the sub- 
ject and the type of mind in author and reader. 
There is the clearness of brevity and, also, of circum- 
locution. The former Johnson does not possess; the 
latter, he does. If judged by the highest historical 
examples of clear writing, he is seen to fall short of 
the standard. Still, he can be thoroughly understood 
by the careful reader. If we follow him, he will 
bring us safely to the end but by a somewhat indirect 
route. The Bamhler failed to receive the popular 
favor which had been given to the Spectator, not 
because the people could not understand it, but in 
that it demanded more time and patience than 
other periodicals. It was not so clear on the face of 
it as that the idea could be snatched easily between 
dinner and dessert, but it was clear. Many of the 
author's essays that contain the longest words and 
sentences and the most complex structure and give 
the impression of hopeless obscurity are perfectly 
intelligible upon due attention. The use of the bal- 
anced order of sentence to which he was so inclined 
aided rather than impaired the general plainness of 
the style. He is not a lucid writer in the sense in 
which Bacon, Swift and Addison are lucid, neither is 
he so conspicuously clear as to make him a model for 
the student of style. We simply affirm that the 
common view as to the vagueness and ambiguity of 
his writing is incorrect and that in a true sense, 
though not in the highest he is comprehensible. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— JOHNSON. 325 

Tboiigh he spoke in terms of praise of the style of 
Browne and Burton, his own methods of expression 
were vastly superior to their's in ease of intelligibility. 
In some of his later authorship, most especially in — 
The Lives of The Poets — he may be said to compare 
favorably with such writers as Addison and Burke as 
to perspicuity. 

" With all its faults," says a biographer, "his style 
has the merit of masculine directness. As Boswell 
remarks, he never uses a parenthesis. The inversions 
are not such as to complicate the construction, and 
his style, though ponderous and wearisome, is as 
transparent as the smarter snip-snap of Macaulay.'* 

(2.) Literary Gravity. 

The reference here is not to that excessive serious- 
ness of manner which often ended in confirmed 
melancholy but to that sober habit of mind and ex- 
pression which was based on his view of the writer's 
vocation. All that he did had a kind of natural sol- 
idity about it. There was nothing trivial or puerile 
in it all. He has a more than ordinary sense of the 
dignity of authorship and addresses himself to his 
work in Baconian spirit "To the glory of God and 
the relief of man's estate." In this respect he re- 
minds us strongly of the "Judicious" Hooker, and 
of Milton. He was pre-inclined to the reflective and 
serious and wrote as he felt. We shall, therefore, 
look in vain, in his writings for tlie unmerciful satire 
of a Swift or even the more harmless pleasantness of 
a Steele and Hawkesworth. There is no vicious 
abuse of personal or literary character, no serio-comic 



826 ENGLISH PROSE, 

burlesque for the sake of burlesque. Even in the 
unguarded conferences of the club and social re- 
unions, he rarely indulged in literary levity up to the 
degree in which it was regarded as admissible. His 
mind was masculine and earnest and he was not 
inclined to stoop so far from that level as to be the 
favorite of the many. If he must choose between 
being a tedious author because so grave in method 
and an entertaining author by catering to the whims 
of the populace, he makes the choice at once in favor 
of the former. In the closing number of the Ram- 
bler he writes, " I have seldom descended to the arts 
by which popular favor is obtained." 

Fearing lest, at times, he might be carried beyond 
legitimate limits, he adds — " As it has been my prin- 
cipal design to inculcate wisdom and piety, I have 
allotted few papers to the idle sports of imagination." 
As literary criticism so often passes beyond the 
province of decorous reproof into personal abuse, he 
places it among the subordinate or instrumental arts. 
He tells us that he has carefully avoided all arbitrary 
decisions as to men and authors asserting nothing 
without a good reason. Even as to the use of figure, 
he affirms that he has never been so studious of nov- 
elty as wholly to depart from all resemblance. Mere 
declamation and hyperbole are an abomination to 
him in that they depart from the reality of things. 
He was thus well aware that his writings were not 
popular and could not become so by reason of their 
gravity of style and didactic method. 

" Scarcely any man is so steadily serious," he says, 
*' as not to complain that the severity of didactical 
instruction has been too seldom relieved and that ho 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS.— JOHNSON. 327 

is driven by the sternness of the Rambler's philoso- 
phy to the more cheerful and airy companions." 

He saw all this and yet adhered to his method. 
Despite his sobriety no one wishes that he had done 
otherwise. There is a moral attractiveness in the 
manner in ^vhich he moves massively on quite un- 
affected by current criticism. When all others were 
anxious to catch the ear of the time, he was content 
to carry out his own methods. Hence, instead of 
essays on, Fops and Fans, there are essays on, Pru- 
dence, Self-Denial and Habit, History, Friendship, 
The Art of Thinking and The Struggles of Life. He 
carries us out of the region of parlors and etiquette 
and social fashion into the higher realm of ethical 
teaching. There is a body to the instruction. The 
food is nutritious rather than merely palatable. The 
aesthetic gives way to the useful. One can reckon 
the specific gravity of Johnson's style. It has been 
called ponderous in the sense of being heavy. It is, 
also, such in the sense of being weighty. With all 
its defects, it is immeasurably better then the sen- 
suous style of the Restoration or the chiseled cor- 
rectness of the days of Pope. Its richness in mental 
instruction and the lofty seriousness of its method do 
much to atone for its errors. Had the gifted Vol- 
taire been the sober-minded Johnson, common sense 
would have held the place of flippant wit and the lit- 
erature of France in the eighteenth century been sig- 
nally improved. Even Germany has urgent need of 
such authors. Every literature needs such bulwarks 
and barriers to arrest the tendencies to national de- 
cline. It is to the praise of English Letters that this 
ethical gravity is an historic part of it from first to last. 



328 ENGLISH PROSE. 

' There are one or two features in the style of John- 
son so closely related to this one of gravity that they 
need mention here — 

(a) This element, at times, showed itself in the ex- 
treme form of rudeness bordering on severity. Mrs. 
Boswell spoke of him to her husband as a " bear '' in 
his manners. Now and then, his style had this bear- 
ish quality. There is a brusque and harsh tone about 
it that grates upon the ear. The Sage of Lichfield 
had a good deal of the animal in his nature and it 
often ruled the other elements. When thus exercised 
he would indulge in the most cruel invective and 
spare no feelings wliatsoever. This however, was 
not the man at his best and in the true interpretation 
of his style, the student is to look beneath all this 
to the essential good-nature and moral gravity of the 
author. 

{h) By way of strange contrast to this quality his 
style is not infrequently marked by the most playful 
humor. Boswell's biography is full of these outbursts 
of pleasantry when by way of reaction from the in- 
herent sobriety of his nature he would indulge in 
saUies of wit and repartee. There is just enough of 
tliis in his prose to give it flavor and attractiveness, 
and to redeem the style from excessive seriousness. 
In, The Lives of the Poets, this order of style is well 
presented. 

(3.) Johnsonianism. 

The style of Johnson is eminently individual. It 
is his own. His full-sized portrait is on every page. 
He is as clearly distinct among English Prose Writers 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS. — JOHNSON. 3:^9 

as is Peter among the apostles. He is self-revealing 
in every word and phrase. No style preceding his 
can be called as unique as his. Among his succes- 
sors, Thomas Carlyle approaches him most closely in 
the element of literary personality-. He thought as 
he pleased, said what he thought, said it as it seemed 
best to him to say it and consulted no one. During 
the forty years between — The Spectator and The 
Rambler, nearly all of the one hundred periodicals 
that arose were imitative of what had preceded. 
The Rambler appeared in 1730 on its own merits, mark- 
ing a decided departure from all existing standards 
and introducing a new era in English Prose. Good 
or bad, it was natural. " He never seems," says 
Leslie Stephen, " to have directly imitated any one," 
and adds " Some nonsense has been talked about his 
forming a style." This is not altogether "nonsense.'* 
The Johnsonian style was a new order of expression 
as compared with anything in the Augustan Age. 
It was new not simply because it was Johnson's 
but because Johnson was so peculiarly a roan by 
himself 

As suggested, we are reminded more of Hooker 
than of any preceding author. In fact, Johnson was 
far more Elizabethan than Augustan. 

He may, in a true sense, be said to have founded a 
school. As in his own day, he was an acknowledged 
leader, so later on he gave direction to literary form. 
Sir Joshua Reynolds, in referring to his own Acad- 
emical Discourses, remarks — " Whatever merit they 
have must be imputed in a great measure to the 
education I may be said to have had under Dr. John- 
son. No man had like him the faculty of teaching 



330 ENGLISH PROSE. 

minds the art of thinking." This language is sim- 
ply a ratification of Johnson's personal power over 
men. Over Goldsmith and others he had a tiiarvei- 
ous infiaence, nor is it too much to say that the his- 
torians and essayists of the latter part of the Georgian 
era were more Johnsonian in general style than they 
were anything else. They improved vastly upon their 
model but still they had a model, in the person of 
Bos well's hero. To this day, that style is among us. 
A further confirmation of tliis individual influence 
is seen in the fact that nearly all the contemporary 
and subsequent periodicals take occasion to acknow- 
ledge it. The Gentleman praises his diction. In — 
The OllaPodrida, — there is a strong defense of him as 
against those who would magnify his defects. The 
Country Spectator, speaks of the sublime philosophy 
of the Rambler. In The Indian Observer, he is repre- 
sented as a nervous, original and intrepid genius, in 
whose presence impiety shrinks away. The author 
of The Advisor, after noting his merits and demerits 
concludes in highest praise of his character and the 
undoubted perpetuity of his writings. In fine, he so 
impressed himself on his age that his style is marked 
by his own features and signed with his own signa- 
ture. It will never be confounded with that of any 
other English proser. 

The lines of Courtenay are here in place — 

" By Nature's gift ordained mankind to rule, 
He like a Titian formed his brilliant school. 
Nor was his energy confined alone 
To friends around his philosophic throne. 
Its influence wide impressed our lettered isle, 
And lucid vigor marked the general style." 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS. — JO HNS ON. 331 

The language of Hamilton on Jolinson's decease is 
a testimony to his individuality as he says — '' John- 
son is dead. Let us go to the next best. No man can 
be said to put you in mind of him. He has made a 
chasm which not only nothing can fill up but which 
nothing has a tendency to fill up." 

His predecessor — " Rare " Ben Jonson was not so 
rare as he. No other man ate and drank; talked and 
walked; lived and wrote as he did. He confided in 
his own judgment as final. The only body he ever 
consulted for advice was — I, Samuel Johnson and 
myself These three always agreed. There is at- 
tractiveness in all this. The tendency to literary ser- 
vility is so strong, that it is refreshing to see an ab- 
solutely independent author. The times of Bacon, 
Dry den and of Swift were full of servility. Every 
age has too much of it. A writer may as well put up 
his pen and close his desk if instead of being himself 
and expressing himself he is aiming to appear in the 
personality of another. In this particular, Dr. Johji- 
son with all his faults had the first characteristic of a 
successful author — Personality. This begets original- 
ity of thought and style. 

Lexicographer and Literary Critic. 

In closmg this discussion, mention should be made 
of the author's work as a Lexicographer and literary 
Critic. 

In his Dictionary of the English Language he did 
a work not only philological in character, but one in 
the interests of English Literature and English Prose 
Style. Faulty as it was on the side of scientific etj-- 



332 ENGLISH PROSE. 

mology, it did a vast work in the line of clearer defin- 
ition, in distinction of synonyms and apt quotations to 
illustrate the sense, and called attention as never be- 
fore both to the richness and needs of the native- 
tongue. He carried out the ideas suggested by 
Dryden and Swift and opened the way for all later 
English lexicography. 

As a Critic, his work was not of the first order as 
compared with such a writer as De Quincey. His 
style, therefore, is not a model of critical prose. Even 
here, however, his prose has been underrated. If he 
failed as a Shakespearian commentator and in his judg- 
ment of Milton, he succeeded in that of Addison, 
Dryden, Pope and others. Many of his decisions on 
men and authors are still standard. Modern stud- 
ents of Sliakespeare and the English Poets cannot 
afford to be ignorant of his opinions in this sphere. 
His style, however, as critical lacks breadth and 
generosity of view. He had certain pet theories 
to which he adhered and there is a little too much of 
the autocratic to make his prose a model in this 
regard. 

Note should also be taken of his skillful use of anti- 
thesis and of his style as in every sense morally "pure 
and ennobling. He, thus, has a rightful place in 
standard English Prose. If his faults were greater 
than those of some others, his merits were more pro- 
nounced. He could be no more easily spared from 
the record of English writers than could any one of 
his predecessors. He had a place and did a work, 
and prepared a way for still better literary effort. He 
advises us in the formation of style to give our "days 
and nights to the study of Addison." The careful 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— JOHNSON. 838 

study of the best elements of this Johnsonian method 
is also needed in the cultivation of a clear, solid and 
original English Prose. 

References and Authorities. 

Boswell's Life of Johnson. Leslie Stephens' Life 
of Johnson (Eng. Men of Let.). Macaulay's Essays. 
Essays of Drake. Carlyle's Heroes. 



CHAPTEE VII. 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF EDMUND BUEKE. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born in Dublin, Jan. 12th, 173D. Entered Dublin 
University, 1744. Degree of B. A., 1748. Studying 
Law at Middle Temple, 1750. M. A., 1751. Trav- 
eled up to 1756. Studied and wrote. Private Sec- 
retary of Hamilton in Dublin, 1761. Returned to 
London, 1764. Private Secretary to Marquis of 
Eockingham. In Parliament from Wendover, 1766. 
Ee-elected, 1768. In Parliament to 1794. Retired 
with honor and pensions. Died, July 7th, 1797. 

Variety of View as to His Rank. 

There are few names, if any, in the records of 
English Prose Literature concerning whom there 
has been such a wide difference of opinion — at the 
extremes of depreciation and of unqualified praise. 

Mr. Morley, his latest biographer adduces five 
representative classes of critics, each holding stren- 
uously to its own special estimate of the man and 
the author. 

The reference here is not to the opinions held by 
the partisan politicians of his time, dependent as 
they were on Burke's relation to the great Whig and 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURR'E. 335 

Tory factions, but to his strictly literary character as 
a writer. On this basis, some speak of him as Hal- 
lam does ill connection with the name of Lord Bacon, 
as a far seeing and profoundly philosophic mind, 
while others, as Carlyle, regarded him as superficial 
and unduly verbose. Lord Macaulay, in his brilliant 
Essay on Warren Hastings, refers to him as " the 
greatest man then living," while others view him as 
nothing short of a political fanatic evincing some 
occasional excellence in the department of letters. 
Mr. Mackintosh speaks of him in the same breath as 
of Shakespeare and would bear impressive testimony 
to the imperial quality of his powers, while some 
have been found who were willing to imply that in 
the production of his most prominent works he was 
mentally astray. 

The great balance of opinion, however, especially 
in modern times, has been in favor of this Anglo- 
Irish author. "Opinion is slowly, but wdthout re- 
action," says Morley " settling down to the verdict 
that Burke is one of the abiding names in our his- 
tory, not because he either saved Europe or destroyed 
the Whig party, but because he added to the perma- 
nent considerations of wise political thought, and to 
the maxims of wise practice in great affairs and 
because he imprints himself upon us with a mag- 
nificence and elevation of expression that places him 
among the highest masters of literature." It is no 
small tribute both to the political and literary genius 
of Burke given by Mr. Froude in his work on Ireland, 
"that if Barke had remained in the country where 
Providence had placed him, he might have changed 
the current of its history." As to the special style 



836 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of his prose, the gifted De Quiucey sa3^s "- that he was 
the supreme writer of his century," to which Minto 
in his Manual of Enghsh Prose subjoins, " Perfect 
command of English is hard to attain; we must be 
content to rank Burke among the few that have 
come nearest to that perfection." 

It is evident from such eulogiums as these that we 
have in Edmund Burke one of the commanding men 
of English History and English Letters. The very 
bitterness of some of the accusations made against 
him but confirms the essential greatness of his nature 
and his work. In every sense of the term lie is a 
representative writer of English andVill well repay 
most careful study on the part of every critic of En- 
glish style. 

If his great contemporary, Fox, could say — " I have 
learned more from him than from all books I have 
ever read," he will have something, at least, of ed- 
ucational and literary value for the student of style. 

His Prose Writings. 

As far as mere quantity of production is concerned, 
Burke ranks among those of our prose authors whose 
works are limited. Whether we view them as to the 
variety of their topics or to their actual numerical 
amount, they are limited. In this respect, the au- 
thor takes his place with such names as Hooker, and 
Milton, rather than with such as Johnson and De 
Quincey. We shall find, however, that his range of 
subject was varied enough and his area of discussion 
broad enough to give full scope for the exercise of 
his literary gifts as well as to afford a sufficiently 



REPRESENTATIVE V/RITERS —BURKE. 337 

full amount of prose work to be a basis for intelligent 
criticism. An account of what he did in the line of 
poetry is not here in place. 

The distinction that some have made between his 
writings as literary and political is not a valid one 
as to the purpose before us, inasmuch as some of his 
strongest features as a writer come into prominence 
in his civic compositions. It is true, as often stated, 
that Burke in one sense left literature for politics and 
'* gave up for party what was meant for mankind." 
In another and a far higher sense, the statement is 
misleading, in that he took his literary self with him 
into the career of public life and through his author- 
ship as a man of affairs became all the more cogent 
and famous. From being an author by profession he 
became one by practice and, as we shall see, happily 
united what is rarely seen in authorship — literary 
and civic power. 

The prose productions in which his style may be 
judged are as follows; 

A Vindication of Natural Society^ or a "View of 
The ^Miseries and Evils arising to Mankind from 
every Species of Artificial Society." This work was 
designed to imitate the style of Lord Bolingbroke 
and to parody his peculiar system of philosophy and 
ethics (1756). 

A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas 
on The Sublime and Beautiful (1756). 

In 1757 appeared — The Account of The European 
Settlements in America. 

Observations on The Present State of The Nation. 

Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents 



338 ENGLISH PROSE, 

(1770), — in which he held that government should be 
in the hands of an aristocracy. 

Reflections on the French Revolution (1790), to which 
Paine replied in — The Bights of Man. 

Thoughts on French Affairs (1791). 

Speech on American Taxation^ April 19th, 1774. 

Speech on Conciliation luith America, March 22nd, 
1775, when he offered thirteen resolutions of con- 
cession. 

Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777). 

Speech on the Nabob of Arcofs Debts (1785). 
■Speech on the India Bill of 1783. 

Speech on the Economical Beform Bill, 1780. 

Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (1792). 

Letter to a Noble Lord (The Duke of Bedford), 
(1796). 

Letters on a Begioide Peace (1796-7). 

The Impeachment of Hastings (1788-9). 

In addition to these as the most important of his 
prose works reference might be made to — 
The Annual Begister (1759). 
Hints for an Essay on The Drama. 
Abridgment of the History of England. 

From this list of titles it will be noted that al- 
though the province of authorship is limited, it 
embraces all the essential forms of prose — narrative, 
descriptive, oratorical, philosophical and miscel- 
laneous. While the topics are as distinct as the 
political, on the one hand, and the aesthetic, on 
the other, most of them are civil in character and 
given in the form of pamphlets or parliamentary 
speeches. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 339 



His Prose Style— Conditions. 

In the analysis and study of Burke's style, two 
matters of moment must ever be kept in view. 

(a) His Style as conditioned hy Ids Character: 

This vital relation of the author and the man is 
noticeable, as we have marked in the histor}^ of every 
prominent English writer. It is an essential part 
and indication of such prominence. Every master 
in letters is known for his individuality. Second 
and third-rate authors imitate others. First-rate au- 
thors are self-directing. They write themselves into 
their words. Burke as a writer is especially sug- 
gestive here. The man must be known in order to be 
understood as an author. 

It must be borne in mind that he was by birth and 
education a Celt. Born in Dublin, early at school at 
Ballitore within thirty miles of it and then, in Trinity 
College at Dublin, it was not till 1750, just at his 
majority, that he is found at London. He had all 
tliai loyalty for his country which characterizes the 
native Celt in whatever part of the world he may be. 
He had that impatient ambition and fiery zeal which 
signalizes the Celt and that Hibernian independence 
which led him to say " I was not made for a minion 
or a tool; I possessed not one of the qualities, nor 
cultivated one of the arts, that recommend men to 
the favor and protection of the great." His loves 
and his hates were Celtic. His partisan attachment 
to what he endorsed took the form of a passionate 
devotion and vented itself in the form of indignant 
invective against his opponents. " When bad men 



340 ENGLISH PROSE, 

combine, the good must associate" was his watch- 
word and stimulus, in party organization, and he 
believed that nothing could be effectively done save 
by concerted action. His convictions were so strong 
and deep that opposition only inflamed them into 
greater intensity of expression. 

In proneness to satire and fondness for imagery 
and romance he was also a true Celt, while in addi- 
tion to it all, his character was marked by that 
sense of personal dignity which no loyal son of Erin 
is witliout. 

The study of Burke's style is largely a study of 
these features of the personality of the man; They 
appear and disappear but are always present in the 
substantial body of the writing and must be seen in 
order to its correct interpretation, 
(b) His Style is conditioned by his Age. 
As decided as Burke's individuality was, it was af- 
fected in various ways by the peculiar type of the 
times in which Providence placed him. The age did 
not control but it did modify the expression of his 
thought. Though it is true that every master-mind 
has, as such, more influence on his age than his age 
has on him, it is, also, true that no man however 
great can ignore the era in which he lives or rise 
above it. He would not do it, if he could. Burke 
wrote differently from what he would have done had 
he lived a century earlier or later, and yet, no care- 
ful observer of the fitness of things can fail to notice 
that he was adapted to his age as his age was to 
him. He would not have been the Burke of English 
Literature apart from his peculiar epoch. 

When we ask as to what the special characteristic 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 341 

of the time was, we find it to have been one of agita- 
tion. It was an age of destruction in order to con- 
struction; of disturbance in order to adjustment. 
The very titles of his pamphlets and speeches indi- 
cate the unsettled condition of the time. It was the 
eva of " Present Discontents," the age of the Ameri- 
can and French Revolutions, when taxation and 
tyranny, conciliation and party, legal right and 
constitutional privilege were the topics of the hour. 
The conservative tendencies were in conflict with 
the progressive. Old traditions were violently dis- 
placed by the most extreme policies, "the distempers 
of monarchy by the distempers of Parliament." 
There was, therefore, more than mere change and 
readjustment in the temper of the time. There was 
a wildness and passionateness about it that marked 
the influence of France on England and the unwill- 
ingness of the mother country to yield up the control 
of her American colonies. 

From all this it will appear that the literature of 
the time would reflect the character of the time. 
This would be especially so in the province of prose 
and on the part of such an author as Burke. 

The dispassionate productions of Bacon and Hooker 
or the didactic papers of Addison and Johnson or the 
light descriptive sketches of Charles Lamb and of 
Dickens would have been impossible in such an era. 
The age was agitative. All was aglow and ablaze. 
Repeal and reform were in order and this meant pre- 
ceding dismemberment. 

If " the style is the man," the style is the age also. 
We shall look in the prose of Burke for a pertinent 
example of Mr. Taine's theory on this subject. 



342 ENGLISH PROSE. 

His treatises on, The Sublime and Beautiful, and on 
the Drama, apart, there is nothing that he spoke or 
wrote that does not bear upon its face the political 
imprint of the era. Never did a period and a writer 
more fully represent each other, and this is a fact 
which not only adds to the interest of the author's 
prose and to the ease of its analysis, but also, indi- 
cates on his part the presence of keen intellectual 
foresight and literary adaptiveness. 

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTSCS OF H!S STYLE. 
(1.) Forensic and Impassioned. 

It was impassioned because it was forensic and 
political in character. From what has been said as 
to the Celtic nature of the author and tbe controver- 
sial nature of the age, such an order of prose would 
be expected. Historians speak of the natural ardor 
of style; of its glowing and fervent phrases; its in- 
terest and sympathy; its persuasive power and unc- 
tion. This is all in the line of correct criticism and 
has to do with that special quality now in question. 
Burke's prose is as prominent an example as there is 
in English Letters of the oratorical style, in the best 
sense of that term. The reported speeches of Fox and 
Grattan, Pitt and Sheridan — his great contemporaries, 
evince occasional passages of equal excellence but as 
to the entire body of oratorical prose produced, Burke 
is the superior of any one of them and marks the 
highest point as yet attained in England in forensic 
prose. 

His temperament was impassioned. The age was 
impassioned. His themes were impassioned. His 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 343 

very auditors and readers were wrought up to the 
very highest levels of emotive interest. The issues 
at stake in civil and common life; in politics and 
public morals were of primary import. Everything 
depended on their proper settlement. In fact, no 
author of that time at all alive to pending problems, 
could have been anything else than positive, intense 
and impressive in his st^de. Apart from such a 
method he would not have been heard or read. 
Hence, the historical and literarv fact that the prose 
of the period is of the emotive order rather than 
didactic, and Burke is supreme in this respect only 
because he rose in his writing to a higher and a 
more prolonged intensiveness of utterance than did 
any of his colleagues. While all of his political writ- 
ings are of this order, there are some of them that 
are so full of " words that burn" that they cannot be 
read even at this late date without eliciting the 
profoundest feelings of the soul, and the reader for- 
gets that he is a century beyond the French Revolu- 
tion and the impeachment of Warren Hastings. 

We have already called attention to some of our 
prose authors in whom this quality of style is 
found. It is in Hooker and in Milton; in Swift 
and Macaulay, but in none, save Milton, as an 
element of eminence, while even in the Puritan Po- 
lemic it is somewhat tempered and weakened by 
other elements. In Burke, it is supreme and rises to 
the level of the sublime. There is nothing like it in 
English annals. It is found in part in Pericles and 
Demosthenes; in Cicero as the enemy of Cataline; 
in Mirabeau as he appeared in the French Assembly 
and in Patrick Henry before the Burgesses of Vir- 



344 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ginia. If we inquire as to any special examples of 
this impassioned style, one can scarcely go astray in 
the speeches and pamphlets that he penned. 

The most prominent of these undoubtedly is what 
he gives us in connection with the Trial of Hastings. 
To make selections here would be unnecessary. Never 
in the history of secular eloquence has a higher point 
been reached than on that day in the great hall of 
William Rufus. The excitement of the country on 
the Indian question was at white heat. Burke, Fox 
and Sheridan and the advocates of Hastings were 
moved as never before, and as the famous Irish accu- 
ser summed up his charges and detailed the grounds 
of his impeachment, the effect was nothing less than 
marvelous. 

" Therefore hath it with all confidence been ordered by the Com- 
mons of Great Britain that I impeach Warren Hastings of high 
crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of The 
Commons House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I 
impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient 
honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of 
India, whose rights he has trodden under foot and whose country 
he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature 
itself, in the name of both sexes; in the name of every age; in the 
name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor 
of aU." 

Macau lay in his brilliant article on Hastings has 
given the account and the immediate effect of this 
impeachment. It is oratorical passion in the essence. 

Brief extracts from some other examples will indi- 
cate a similar intensity of soul. In the speech on — 
The Nabob of Arcot's Debts — we read the description 
of Hyder All's desolation of the Carnatic in part as 
follows : 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 345 

"When at length H^^der Ali found that he had to do with men 
who either would sign no convention or whom no treaty or signa- 
ture could bind, and who were tlie determined enemies of human 
intercourse itself, he decreed to make the country a memorable ex- 
ample to mankind. He resolved to leave the whole Carnatic an 
everlasting monument of vengeance, to put perpetual desolation as 
a barrier between him and those against whom the faith which 
holds the moral elements of the world together was no protection. 
Then ensued a scene of woe the like of which no eye had seen, no 
heart conceived and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the 
horrors of war before known or heard of were mercy to that new 
havoc. For eighteen months without intermission, this destruction 
raged from the gates of Madras to the gates of Tanjore. 

*'So completely did these masters of their art absolve themselves 
of their impious vow, that, when the British armies traversed, as 
they did, the Carnatic for hundreds of miles in all directions, they 
did not see one man, not one woman, not one child, not one four- 
footed beast. One dead, uniform sHenoe reigned over the whole 
region." 

In a notable letter to Elliot on the question of re- 
form he writes — 

"How often has public calamity been arrested on the very brink 
of ruin by the seasonable energy of a single man ! Have we no 
such man among us ? I am as sure as I am of my being that one 
vigorous mind, without office, without situation, without public 
functions of any kind, confiding in the aid of God and full of just 
reliance in his own fortitude, would first draw to him some few 
like himself and then multitudes would appear. If I saw this 
auspicious beginning, baffled and frustrated as I am, on the very 
verge of a timely grave, abandoned abroad and desolate at home 
yet thus, even thus I would rake up the fires under all the ashes 
that oppress it. Even in solitude something may be done for 
society. The meditations of the closet have affected senates with 
a sudden frenzy and inflamed armies with the brands of the furies. 
Why should not a Maccabeus arise to assert the honor of the an- 
cient laws and to defend the temple of their forefathers, for when 
once things are gone out of their ordinary course, it is by acts out 
of the ordinary course they can alone be re-established." 



346 ENGLISH PROSE. 

But it is needless to multiply these references. In 
his — Reflections on The French Revolution — and his 
— Letters on a Regicide Peace, and, most especially, 
in his three great efforts in connection with tlie 
American War, these impassioned outbursts are on 
every page, while even in his most didactic utterances 
there is a kind of suppressed earnestness of soul that 
influences the reader. All this is forensic and potent, 
full of the genuine Celtic fervor and fire. It is a 
quality of prose style that was then at its best ex- 
pression in England and Ireland and France and 
which rose to special excellence in America in the 
persons of Adams, Hamilton, Webster, Clay and Cal- 
houn. Specially adapted to the public audience and 
to questions uniting political issues, it has, also, a 
most important place in the province of literary prose 
and goes far to redeem it from that charge of dullness 
so often and so justly made against it. When men 
speak and write on any topic of vital moment, some- 
thing of this Burkeian emotiveness is essential to 
the highest efiect; Clearness is the first quality of 
style, but force is next and close upon it — and these 
should co-exist as mutual aids in writing. In these 
speeches of Burke we find notable examples of the 
close connection between written and oral discourse. 
His speeches after their delivery were revised and 
sent to the press for publication and became at once 
a part of the literature of England. They had all 
the correctness of written language, and yet, all the 
unction of spoken discourse. While they instruct, 
they also impress and stimulate us. They serve to 
teach the valuable lesson in style that there is in all 
writing an element that may be called oratorical or 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 347 

impassioned and should ever have its proper place in 
common with the other qualities of prose expression. 
It is pertinent in this connection to state that 
modern criticism has somewhat objected to the style 
of Burke as being extreme in the way oi oratorical 
fervor., or rather as being more declamatory than 
eloquent. One of his most successful biographers, 
MacKnight, states " that his vehemence was fre- 
quently injurious to the object he had in view." So 
Carlyle speaks of him as "vehement rather than 
earnest," while it has rather been the fashion of late 
in certain quarters to reduce this forensic feature in 
Burke's style to the minimum. Such a criticism is 
not unnatural. There is, at times, too much of the 
declamatory element in Burke. There is too much 
exaggerated and wayward assertion under the im- 
pulse of the moment. There is something of what is 
termed the grandiose style. This is true, and yet, 
what is to be made of it as essentially detracting 
from the high fame of Burke as an intensive writer? 
His errors here were altogether exceptional. Never 
did a man more carefully forecast the line of his 
argument. As Morley remarks of. The Keflections, 
*' It was no superb improvisation." His pamphlets 
and speeches cost him study, care, and the most un- 
wearied painstaking. So that as Craik remarks, " His 
writings are the only English political writings of 
a past age that continue to be read in the present. 
In the fiery excitement of the time and the almost 
oppressive interest that centred about the great ques- 
tions that were under discussion, it is not at all 
strange that feeling and imagination, at times, took 
control of the judgment and led the author into 



348 ENGLISH PROSE. 

extremes. This, however, was rare and as in the 
case of the trial of Hastings when the audience was 
well nigh unmanned, Burke was self-possessed and 
ti taster of the hour. It is just here that Burke differs 
IVom Macaulay and is his superior, in that, where 
the gifted essayist so often digresses into vapid 
declamation without soul or substance, the Irish 
orator is full of true feeling, fertile in ideas and ex- 
presses himself for a valid purpose. The more care- 
fully one understands the temperament of Burke and 
his times and the more closely his style is scanned, 
the more manifest it will be that while forensic pas- 
sion too often passes into extravagance, the great 
body of his prose is marked by that genuine emotion 
which tells of a great heart and a catholic interest 
in the race. 

(2.) Dignified and Manly. 

Here again, we touch the close relation of Burke's 
personality to his style. Even in his boyhood and 
early school days, there was seen a kind of maturity 
of manner indicative of thoughtfulness and promising 
future eminence. Sobriety of temperament was, in a 
sense, constitutional with him and in fullest harmony 
with his impassioned earnestness of nature, while his 
fond devotion to his old Quaker teacher from York- 
shire may have deepened and mellowed this inborn 
tendency. It is well known what impressions he 
made in this particular upon some of the leading 
minds of his time. When Eobertson remarked that 
Burke had wit, Johnson objected, in that he felt that 
Burke could never condescend to the level of the 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE, 349 

punster aud the clown. It was Johnson who tells us 
that any person could see at once that Burke was an 
extraordinary man, did he but meet him casually 
by the way for a moment's chat, aud he asserted that 
he was the only man be ever met whose common con- 
versation corresponded with his high intellectual 
character and fame. He was always the great and 
manly Burke. 

We learn tliat Burke's view of Sheridan was com- 
paratively indifferent in that there was a lack of 
moral gravity with which he could have no sincere 
sympathy. He was specially fond of discussiug high 
themes and conversing about the leading names of 
history. In this respect, his nature was Miltonic and 
Homeric. In our own country it might be termed — 
Websterian. His brow was massive and so was his 
soul, and he had nothing whatever to do with those 
numberless petty questions and incidents that seem 
to absorb the thought of the multitude. 

All this in the man, revealed itself in the author. 
There is a something about the movement of Burke's 
prose that is majestic and magisterial — nothing base 
or belittling, nothing puerile or trivial, nothing even 
merely amusing for amusment's sake, but a kind of 
judicial gravity everywhere apparent that makes it 
impossible for a man to be any other than in sober 
earnest as he peruses it. His treatise on — The Sublime 
— is characteristic of the man, and marks the uniform 
quality of his writing. Hence, it is interesting to 
note to what views of things as a writer this element 
of personal dignity gives origin — to his broad views 
of the proper functions and objects of civil govern- 
ment; to his wide and sobei schemes as to churoh and 



350 ENGLISH PROSE. 

state, trade and society; to his philauthropic interest 
in the oppressed classes wliether they were slaves in 
chains or colonists in America or the victims of rapa- 
city in India. It v^^as this high sense of honor that 
gave occasion to some of the finest passages of his 
prose. When asked by the gentlemen of Bristol to 
advocate what he felt he could not, he said — '• I 
should only disgrace myself. I should lose the only 
thing which can make such abilities as mine of any 
use to the world — 1 mean that authority which is de- 
rived from the opinion that a member speaks the 
language of truth and sincerity and that he is not 
ready to take up or lay down a great political system 
for the convenience of the hour; that he is in Parlia- 
ment to support his opinion of the public good and 
does not form his opinion in order to get into Parlia- 
ment or to continue in it." " 1 never will suffer," he 
said, " any man or description of man to suffer from 
errors that naturally have grown out of the abusive 
constitution of those offices which I propose to regu- 
late, — If I cannot reform with equity, I will not re- 
form at all." Such was the manly tenor of his words. 
Whenever he wrote or spoke, it was under the influ- 
ence of a high idea of the nature of man, the excel- 
lence of truth, the momentous interests at stake. 
There was a total absence of that cynical view of man 
which Swift and Carlyle possessed and nothing of that 
spirit of levity which marked the writers of the Ees- 
toration. He had the gravity of Richard Hooker in 
connection with a wider breadth of intellect and 
Boul. 

Morley is right when he says that " Burke had the 
sacred gift of inspiring men to use a grave diligenoe 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —BURKE. 351 

in caring for high things and in making their lives 
rich and austere." 

It is this feature of the prose before us that gives 
to it the additional feature of ethical vitality. There 
is a moral tone throughout that is sound and whole- 
some. There is what Longinus would term — an 
elevation of spirit and expression that at once im- 
presses the mind of the reader and inclines him to 
the best things. It is not necessary, here, to inquire 
minutely into the personal religious life of Burke fur- 
ther than to say that he was a pure, conscientious 
and upright man. Nor is it necessary to inquire how 
he adjusted the Protestant beliefs of his father with 
the Romish beliefs of his mother and these again^ 
^vith the simple Quaker creed of Shackleton, his early 
teacher, further than to say that he was brought up in 
the faith of his father and was an English Protestant. 
Nor is it necessary to attempt to explain in consist- 
ency with his professions certain official acts that a 
hostile criticism has charged to his account further 
than to say, that Burke's parliamentar}- record of thirty 
years is characteristically free from those official 
errors and vices which mark the lives of so many 
legislators. We are speaking of his prose style in its 
substantial merit when we say tliat it is morally ele- 
vated and elevating throughout. It brings the reader 
into the region of the highest and best things and 
obliges him to take more exalted views of himself and 
his mission. If this be so, the prose of Burke should 
find a place in the library of every thoughtful English 
speaking student. We may say of it, as we may say 
in regard to De Quincey's, that young men, especially, 
will find it full of just the literary and ethical teach- 



852 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ing that they need. The record of EngJitsii Prose will 
liirnish uo better prose than Barke's in the line oi" 
healthful, hterary stimulus and judicious g-uidauce 
in the expression of thought. Most of all, must they 
read it who wish to do any worthy work in the sphere 
offorensic writing. Combining as it does the elements 
of genuine feeling and ethical dignity, it is calculated 
to produce the best possible eifect upon the mind 
addressed. Burke is one of the world's dignitaries 
and is still potent in modern history. His style is 
full of his great soul and no one can put himself fairly 
into contact with the moral grandeur of his prose and 
not be a stronger man and a more effective writer. 

(3.) Practical and Timely. 

His style was such by the very force of circum- 
stances, quite apart from the man himself. He could 
not have been otherwise in the reign of George III., 
and as a member of the British Parliament. The age 
was practical. The issues at stake were practical. 
A few, indeed, such as Bolingbroke were spinning 
their metaphysical theories, but the great majority 
of the scholars and writers and people of the time 
were awake and devoted. The same influences that 
made men fervent made them advocates of the use- 
ful. All this in the age was fully in keeping with 
the inner spirit and purpose of Burke. He was as far 
as possible from being a visionary or a mere political 
schemer. That moral gravity of which we have 
spoken made it impossible for him to do anything 
earnestly for any other reason than for its practical 
value. Burke was a philosopher in the concrete 



REPRESENTATIVE IV/ClTJlRS. — BL'A'AWu 353 

sense of the term. He cared nothing for abstract 
speculation and went, at times, to extremes in his 
language as to the uselessness of mere theory. 

'*! do not mean to condemn," he says, "such spec- 
ulative inquiries concerning this great object. They 
may tend to clear doubtful points and, possibly, may 
lead to real improvements. What 1 object to, is, 
their introduction into a discourse relating to the ini- 
mediate state of our affairs and recommending plans 
of practical government." 

There was everything in Burke's history to make 
him thus suspicious of all vagaries as a writer. '' He 
was emphatically," says Mr. Craik, "a practical po- 
litician and, above all, an English politician." His 
early official life in the Secretaryship, his service of 
nearly a generation in Parliament; his constant con- 
tact with public men and affairs of state deepened 
this tendency. One of the strongest arguments 
against the criticism of Burke's oratory as mere 
declamation is the fact, that he had actually no time 
for such declamation. As Arnold expresses it, he 
*' was saturated with ideas " and used words only as 
means to their expression. Even in his great speech 
at the impeachment which took hours for its deliv- 
ery, he was too busy for the mere parade of his power 
nor did he think of it for a moment. What the 
critics have called digression and flights of fancy, 
■was but the method by which unconsciously he re- 
lieved his mind from that almost unbearable tension 
to which it was stretched. What he was aiming at 
was the rectification of Indian abuses under the 
policy of Hastings, and every syllable counted for 
one, in the solemn indictment. 



354 ENGLISH PROSE. 

So, in the pamphlets on the French and Araerictin 
Revolutions and the great questions of reform. His 
aim was the defense of popular privilege against tlie 
exactions of despotism and of official purity against 
official corruption. Never has a man had a more 
definite purpose or more definitely worked toward its 
fulfillment. All his utterances revealed this fact, 
and most especially do those in which he was con- 
tending for popular rights. " I am not one of those," 
he said, " who think that the people are never wrong. 
They have been so, frequently and outrageously, in 
other comitries and in this But I do say that in all 
disputes beiween them and their rulers, the pre- 
sumption is at least upon a par." To press this 
presumption against all odds was the aim of Burke. 
He was not at all in favor of a pure democracy and 
therefore opposed the French Revolution from the 
outset. He was, however, heartily in favor of a lim- 
ited democracy and therefore opposed the monarch- 
ical despotism of the mother country in her relations 
to the colonies. 

It was this union of conservative stability with 
progressive ideas as to constitutional reform that 
made him such a power in the state. 

Burke's prose was thus full of this practical busi- 
ness-like element. It was not simply prose as distinct 
from poetry, but pertinent and utilitarian as dis- 
tinct from indefinite. It was the real "proversus or 
prorsus — the straightforward way of stating things. 

It is in point here to state that this is a feature of 
style far too little seen even in authors of note. 
There is not enough of direct address — a speaking 
and writing to the point in hand^ so that the results 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 355 

are manifest aiivl permanent. In this respect, polit- 
ical prose as represented in Burke has every advan- 
tage in that it is addressed directly to the questions 
at issue. There is nothing merely poetic or fanciful 
here, but all is serious and definite and the writer is 
held closely to a practical end by the very nature of 
his theme. 



(4.) Satirical and Figurative. 

Burke's first production of any note — A Vindication 
of Natural Society — was of the satirical order as 
directed against the style and philosophy of Boling- 
broke, and so complete was the disguise that it was 
commonly referred to Lord Bolingbroke himself. 
This element of irony naturally found its best ex- 
pression in his pamphlets and speeches and naturally 
took the form of impassioned invective. In his papers 
on the French and the American Revolutions; in his. 
Impeachment of Hastings and his defense of the 
Reform Bill, are to be found some of the finest ex- 
amples in Eaglish Prose of successful satire. It is, 
also, noticeable that inasmuch as satire essentially 
involves figurative forms the ironical and figurative 
elements combine in the prose of Burke. 

In — The Reflections — when speaking of the Nat- 
ional Assembly of France he states — 



" It is notorious that all their measnres are decided before they 
are debated. It is beyond doubt that under the terror of the bayo- 
net and the lamp-post they are obliged to adopt all the desperate 
measures suggested by clubs composed of a medley of all tongues. 



356 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Among these are found persons, in comparison of whom Cataline 
would be thought scrupulous, and Cethegus a man of sobriety. 
Tenderness to individuals is considered as treason to the public. 
Liberty is always to be estimated perfect as property is rendered 
insecure. Amidst assassination and massacre, they are forming 
plans for the good order of future society." 

In his — -Letter to a Noble Lord — he writes: — 

"I challenge the Duke of Bedford as a juror to pass upon the 
value of my services. I have no doubt of his Grace's readiness in 
all the calculations of vulgar arithmetic, but I shrewdly suspect 
that he is little studied in the theory of moral proportions, and has 
never learned the rule 6f three in the arithmetic of state." 

In his speech at the trial of Hastings even his own 
great powers almost seem to fail him in his effort to 
express the deep intensity of his soul. All forms of 
irony, from the courteous innuendo to the mock- 
heroic are used. All species of figure from metaphor 
to hyperbole are used, because as Macaulay states it, 
" The thought of the crimes (of Hastings) made the 
blood of Burke boil in his veins," No ordinary lan- 
guage would at all suffice and he must resort to the 
unusual and striking. 

At times, the style of Burke reaches the extreme 
of invective and metaphor and no terms can be too 
violent to vent his indignation. In the main, how- 
ever, he keeps his prose within the bounds of personal 
and literary propriety. Less chaste and cautious 
than De Quincey and Dickens, he is more vigorous 
than either in his use of imagery, while he surpasses 
Macaulay himself in some of his imaginative flights. 
Readers have often noted the descriptive power of 
Burke's style, its illustrative or imaginative char- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 357 

acfer, as exliibited, especially, in his parliamentary 
addresses. Such a feature was a part of his Celtic 
nature and vastly deepened by his experiences. 
He had what is termed the historic imagination as 
distinct from the philosophic or poetic. He was 
an adept in the re-presentation of the life of the 
immediate past as seen in India or France, while 
the stirring events of his own time but served 
to interpret all the more clearly what had always 
transpired. 

His description of the desolations wrought by the 
wicked policy of Hastings, of the descent of Hyder 
AH upon the Carnatic or of the evils attendant upon 
popular revolution, take their place as literary ef- 
forts by the side of Hugo's Waterloo or Wallace's 
Vesuvius. 

Some of these passages are full of a genuine pathos 
and while arousing righteous indignation against the 
oppressed, awaken sympathy for the suffering, in 
fine, there is in the prose of Burke in addition to 
vigor and dignity and practical aim a kind of de- 
scriptive richness of phrase and form — a comprehen- 
siveness of style that includes the various forms of 
imagery and irony, of pathos and poetic power. 
Morley speaks of the " varieties of Burke's literary 
methods." Such varieties are mainly seen within 
the sphere of the illustrative and pictorial, in wealth 
of diction and rhetorical structure and in that flexible 
aptness by which he was able to adapt himself and 
his subject to the exigencies of the hour. Too sober- 
minded in his style to indulge in the expression of 
much humor and too impassioned, at times, to avoid 
violations of phrase and sentence structure, he still 



358 ENGLISH PROSE. 

succeeded in exhibiting all the substantial qualities 
of the best prose style. 

We note, in closing, the main defect of Burke's 
prose. 

(5.) The Lack of Literary Finish. 

It is at this point that the critics of Burke are 
most on the alert and most hostile. Even by those 
who concede all the other qualities referred to, this 
one of finish is questioned or flatly denied as exist- 
ing. The origin of this current view is undoubtedly 
found in the fact that the prose of Burke is specially 
forensic or political. As such, it is oratorical, it is 
argued, as distinct from being literary; the prose of 
the parliament and hustings rather than that of the 
study and library. The theory here is that the 
terms — oratorical and finished — as applied to prose 
production are in a sense exclusive of each other; 
that a style which is specially forensic is thereby 
less apt to be marked by excellence of form. There 
is some degree of truth in all this and, yet, care 
must be taken lest the criticism be pushed to an 
extreme. 

It must be conceded that Burke's prose as being 
essentially political is thereby less marked by grace 
and elegance than by some other qualities— that it 
cannot in this respect, be at all compared with Addi- 
son's or Macaulay's, with Lamb's or De Quincey's 
and more nearly resembles the controversial style of 
Milton in his vigorous state pamphlets. This is so, 
and yet it is very much to be questioned whether 
Burke himself would have had it otherwise. Poetic 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —BURKE. 350 

finish of prose forms was in no sense to his purpose. 
The practical character of his writings forbade it nor 
would he have surrendered the greater good for the 
lesser. If in order to its securing, he must yield one 
iota of his cogent manner, he was unwilling to make 
the sacrifice. As we have seen, he had no time for 
the mere embellishment of word and paragraph but 
must speak " right on" as " a plain, blunt man." 

His literary theory was all in the direction that 
there were some things infinitely better than literary 
finish. Hence, his very figures and illustrations were 
homely, and often, crude and harsh. At whatever 
cost, he must secure an impressive foriu of statement. 
This was, often, at the expense of verbal nicety and 
neatness. 

In his essay on — The Sublime and Beautiful — he 
teaches that strength and beauty do not coincide and 
he prefers the former. If in describing the Duke of 
Bedford or the chief actors in the French Revolution, 
delicacy and refinement of taste stand in the way of 
his meaning, then taste must take care of itself and 
the truth be told in pungent form. It is just here 
that he often violates propriety, and yet, how could 
we spare the words that follow such a violation. As 
Minto aptly states at this point, "Taste is certainly 
not the special virtue of English Literature." Burke 
in this respect is a Puritan and a Saxon. He talks 
as Fuller and Bunyan, Bede and Alfred talked, quite 
irrespective of the elegance of the phrase. 

That the critics are right in calling this a defect no 
one will question. That they are rio-ht in so magni- 
fying it as to make it a criminal oftense on Burke's 
part and an insuperable objection to placing his 



360 ENGLISH PROSE. 

prose in tlie first rank, is altogether questionable. 
Despite his want of grace of touch, he is at the very 
front of our EngUsh prosers and gains in effective- 
ness where he loses in elegance. More than this, 
had he written as Addison or Dickens wrote, his 
prose would have perished with the events that 
called it forth. Critics must deal with him where he 
invites scrutiny — at his strongest points as a writer 
and not at a point where he makes no pretense to 
special excellence. Bacon and Burke have been 
compared, intellectually. They are, also, similar in 
their prose style in this — that cogency of statement 
must at all hazards be secured. With them, expres- 
sion is for impression. 

It is interesting and also a matter of justice to note 
in this connection, that in the wider sense of the 
word, Burke's style had a degree of literary quality. 
His scrupulous care in the composition of his writ- 
ings is well known. 

So literary^ indeed, were his speeches that the in- 
difference of the members of Parliament at their 
delivery is thus explained. We are told that they 
read better than they sounded. The early attractions 
of literature for him are a matter of history to the 
extent that he seriously proposed to make it his 
sphere of activity in life. His fondness for reading 
was intense, and the information he gathered was of 
such extent as to qualify him f(n- the compilation of 
The Annual Register. He spoke of Spenser and the 
later poets with the freedom of intimate friendship. 
His neglect of prescribed study while at Trinity for 
the more pleasing pursuits of letters is not questioned, 
and even at the Temple in the nominal study of the 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— BURKE. 3G1 

law, he was really engaged in storing his mind with 
useful information outside of Digests and Commen- 
taries. In happy connection with all this is the 
account that we have of his literary associates. At 
the famous Turk's Head, he was one of the habitual 
guests. With Robertson, the historian, and Garrick, 
the actor he was intimate. He knew Gibbon and 
Reynolds, Goldsmith and Johnson, as literary friends 
and helpers, and was attached to some of them by a 
passionate devotion. He never left the society of 
these masters of letters even after he had formally 
abandoned letters for the stirring life of politics. 

So decided was he in his literary tastes and abili- 
ties that The Letters of Junius, now attributed to Sir 
Philip Francis were credited to him until he solemnly 
avowed that he was not their author. He prided 
himself on basing his style upon the best literary 
models of England and France. In fine. If he had 
not the element of literary grace in his prose, he had 
his full share of literary taste and tendency in his 
nature. 

Had he not abandoned the literary life proper for 
a more public sphere and service, these tendencies 
would have been developed in a different direction 
and he might have given us epics and histories in the 
place of fiery pamphlets on revolution and reform. 

He made a deliberate choice, however, in favor of 
politics and presents a prominent example in English 
Letters of the author in Parliament. Unlike Bacon 
and Milton and Addison and Lamb and Macaulay, 
he subordinated literature to the oflSces of state and, 
3^et withal, maintained his reputation as an English 
writer. As a man and an author he has left an indel- 



362 ENGLISH PROSE. 

"ble impression on English Letters. He was great in 
bis unique personality and great in the emotive seri- 
ousness of his prose. Whenever students of character 
may desire to see the embodiment of nobility and un- 
seliiahness in human nature; whenever students of 
political science and public questions may desire to 
see measures and maxims of wide legislative reach, 
and whenever students of English Style may desire 
to see an example of impassioned, manly, sober and 
practical prose second to no other in our literary an- 
nals, they must give their attention to the writings 
ot" Burke — a man who thought as he pleased and 
epoke and wrote as he thought and whose separate 
presence in any era is enough to give it permanent 
renown in history. 

References and Authorities. 

Prior's Life of Burke. Macaulay's Essays. Mor-. 
ley's Burke (Eng. Men of Let.). Maurice's Friend- 
ship of Books. Croly's Historical Sketches. 



CHAPTER VriT. 
THE PROSE STYLE OF CHABLES LAMB. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born, Feb. 18th, 1775, in London. Was educated 
at Christ's Hospital. Thence, to the South Sea 
House. A Clerk in the India House, 1792. Retired 
with Pension in 1825. Died in London, Dec. 27th. 
1834. 

His Prose Writings. 

Lamb was not a voluminous writer either of verse 
or prose. 

As far as his poetry is concerned, it is of indifferent 
merit and we are at a loss to understand De Quincey's 
remark " that Lamb had the dramatic intellect and 
taste, perhaps, in perfection," save as we interpret 
this language in reference to Lamb's ability as a 
critic of the drama. In fact, poetry was not his 
favorite work. As he sends his sonnets to Coleridge 
he says with some degree of spirit, " Take them, for 
they tempt me to go on with the idle trade of versify- 
ing whicli 1 long to leave off, for it is unprofitable to 
my soul." In the Essays of Elia he speaks of " his 
proper element of prose." 

Even here, the actual amount of Hterary product 
is somewhat limited as compared with the essayists 



364 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of the Augustan era. As far as our purpose is con- 
cerned, we have to do with — The Essays of Elia^ 
Specimens of Dramatists, Miscellaneous Essays, Bosa- 
r)iCricl, and with his Letters. 

As to any partial Defects of Style which critics 
have noted we may mention: 

PARTIAL DEFECTS OF STYLE. 

(1.) Diction and Structure. 

Despite the general excellence of the author's style 
at this point, there is something, it is true, to rebuke 
and correct. 

The frequency of complex parenthesis is noticeable. 
In this regard, Lamb is not as discreet as Swift, who 
under the cover of digressions, included all the in- 
direct material that he wished to use, and yet pre- 
served intact the unity of the thought. As to diction 
it is, at times, difficult we confess to draw the line 
between humorous and sober phraseology. Many 
phrases in themselves improper seem to be used for 
purposes of wit. 'Tis thus that he speaks of " day- 
mare" as well as night-mare; of the "knock-eternal" 
rather than nocturnal; of clergy -gentlemanly ; of loco- 
restive; of a man as parson-ish and of the non-senso- 
rium. Apart from such doubtful usage, moreover, 
there is too much liberty of coinage until a literary 
habit of verbal h)oseness seems to be formed. Thus, 
we have — unplain, discapacitate, disputaciousness, 
snugify, and similar barbarisms. 

It is to be noted here that Lamb's fondness for the 
older authors and his constant tendency to the serio- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— LAMB. oG5 

comic somewhat aiFected his diction, and not always 
for the better. Had he written far more than he did 
his prose in tins inspect would have been improved. 
In the main, however, the diction and structure are 
of merit. They are so thoroughly in keeping with 
the author's individuality that the}^ must be judged in 
that light. In many of his critical essays such as — 
The Tragedies of Shakespeare — his vocabulary in rich- 
ness and compass is of the very first order, while in 
his Hghter humorous papers, the facile use of English 
is worthy of the best prose writers of our literature. 
It is extreme criticism to insist that the diction is 
inferior by reason of those few examples which mark 
a departure from verbal ])ropriety. 

(2.) Abs-^noG Oi Loglca! Development. 

This defect lias, also, been noted and with some 
reason. There is needed, it is said, the presence of a 
jcentral idea definitely wrought out and applied. 

When Lamb wrote to Coleridge "Cultivate sim- 
plicitly, or rather, I should say, banish elaborateness," 
he stated a principle true in itself yet needing ex- 
planation. True simplicity is perfectly compatible 
with -'elaborateness'' and should so be related in 
prose discourse. Lamb, we are told, goes to the 
opposite extrepie and is simple at the expense of thor- 
oughness. Even in Elia the style is, thus, epistolary 
and colloquial as well as in the Letters. There is 
not enough of the philosophical and consecutive. 

It is this special point on which De Quincey dwells 
in his criticism of Lamb. He speaks of a want of 
continuity; refers to him as discontinuous, abrupt 



366 ENGLISH PROSE. 

and capricious. Tn the suggestive language of Cole- 
ridge, be is "non-sequacious." A two-fold explana- 
tion of this defect is given in, the infringement made 
upon the auiliors time by the constant visitation of 
friends, leading to the habit of snatching at learning 
by fragments and, also, in the fact that it was a mode 
of composition quite in harmony with the unsettled 
tendencies of his mind. Be this as it may, "the non- 
sequaciousness" is too apparent, and is rightly em- 
phasized by the critics. Perhaps his early experience 
in newspaper writing led to this style of English 
which his latest biographer terms — ''eclectic." The 
style is often fragmentary and transitional, full of 
discursive sketches and ramblings even where a line 
of reflection more or less sustained would be in order. 
It is thus that his biographer cautions us — "If an 
essay is headed — Oxford in the Vacation — we must 
not complain that only half the paper touches on 
Oxford, and that the rest is divided between the 
writer Elia and a certain absent-minded old scholar, 
George Dyer, on whose peculiarities Lamb was never 
tired of dwelling." 

This being so, it is maintained that it is in the 
light of other tests and canons of criticism that Lamb 
is to be judged and commended. Whatever he is in 
the line of literary merit, he cannot be called a 
mentally vigorous writer as Milton was. Allusion has 
been made to some possible explanations of this 
defect. The real one has not, as yet, been stated. 
It is this. Lamb was a pronounced advocate of the 
natural method of writing as distinct from any 
method based on prescribed literary law. He rather 
boasted in having no style or method, writing what 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— LAMB. 367 

and how he pleased, doing in prose what Sliakespeave 
is represented by Milton as doing in poetry — " warb- 
ling his native wood-notes wild." On this theory, 
false as it is, Lamb gains something, perhaps, in the 
way of apparent naturahiess or freedom of style, but 
loses greatly in the way of strength, solidity and true 
literary effect. No man can afford to decry thor- 
oughness by arguing superficially or decry method 
by writing immethodically. The purely " natural 
school" in every sphere is its own sufficient answer. 
Admitting all this, we shall find however, that this 
unrestrained manner was germane to the author's 
habit and personality and that he could not have 
succeeded as well as he did on any other principle. 

He did not pretend to present a Baconian style and 
the critics have overreached themselves in protesting 
that Lamb must write as some others wrote. In 
fact, he made it a point to break away from the older 
school as to method. Mr. Taine reaches a better 
result here when he maintains that Lamb aimed to 
destroy " the great aristocratical style as it sprang 
from methodical analyses and court conventions.'* 
This want of logical order is a fault. It is so in 
Lamb, but in him not a great fault as thereby he 
expressed himself and yet kept within the limits of a 
general method. To bind him to any rigorous pre- 
arranged plan would be simply to rob him of his 
personality as a writer, and of those elements of style 
which now endear him to the reading public. Such 
a free-hand style is in its place as useful as a more 
rigid one and serves to vary that wearisome monotony 
which would result from the exclusive presence of a 
more philosophic method. 



368 ENGLISH PROSE. 



(3.) Want of Permanent Literary Effect. 

This defect, in so far as it is found, is the inevitable 
result of the one just stated. It is not within the 
author's mental possibilities to found a separate 
school of literature nor is his style, at its best, 
dominant and shaping. He was not meant to be a 
leader or reformer. As far as his life is revealed and 
his writings indicate, he never had as an author any- 
high ethical end to accomplish as Bacon and Johnson 
had. He accepted the condition of things as he found 
them and made no sustained endeavor to modify 
them. His writings are subjective and devoid of the 
aggressive and polemic element. After the peruscil 
of his works, we stand just where we stood before 
relative to the great questions of church and state. 
As we shall see, all this had some purpose in it and 
such a man was needed to relieve the people from 
the rigid methods of Baconian days or the moralistic 
Inebriety of Augustan times and put the world in 
good humor. A softer and more desultory method 
was demanded and the need was supplied in the 
prose of Lamb. By this it is not meant that we find 
in Lamb a style devoid of morale. 

In the centre of his character he was a serious 
minded man. His better nature was on the side of 
the right and the good. His spirit was in harmony 
with what was fine and exalted. All this conceded, 
there is the lack of what Chalmers would call " the 
expulsive power " of moral character — a strong, per- 
manent, ethical impression. His nature was of the 
subdued rather than of the positive order. There is 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITE h'S— LAMB. 3G9 

a large element of the Melaiicthon in his style and 
little of the Luther. It is still true that his prose is 
read more for its cheeriness and good-nature than for 
any result '\\\ the line of permanent moral good. 

Talfourd, his biographer, states it exactly as he 
says — " Of all modern writers his works are most 
immediately directed to giv^e us heart-ease and to 
make us happy." This language indicates the merit 
and, also, marks the deficiency of the authors prose 
and prose style. 

In noting the more positive and promising merits 
of his style, we remark — 

PROMISING MERITS OF STYLE. 

(1.) Its English Character and Spirit. 

No prose writer of England has ever been more 
deeply interested in English Letters and, especially, in 
its earlier and quainter forms. In his tragedy of Wood- 
vil, he refers tu his — " Sweet ^lother Tongue, Old En- 
glish Speech." To ^lary, his sister, he says, " that they 
were tumbled early by accident or design into a 
spacious closet of good Old English reading, without 
much objection , or prohibition and browsed at will 
upon that fair and wholesome pasturage." As the 
natural result of such a ^'browsing" he gave to the 
English Public his ''Specimens of the EngHsh Dram- 
atists contemporary with Shakespeare." These were 
so attractive as to be called " the quintessence of 
criticism." All through his style, we note tlie in- 
forming presence of the older authors; an ardent 
devotion to their words and ways and a sacred pur- 
pose to restore them, if possible, to their rightful 



370 ENGLISH PROSE. 

place iu Modern English Letters. The pages of his 
prose are aptiy marked by references to the earlier 
times. In a characteristic letter to Coleridge in 
which he is using all his influence to persuade hiiu to 
concentrate his genius upon the production of an 
epic, he adjures him to do it " by the sacred energies 
of Milton" and the "sweet and soothing fantasies of 
Spenser." He speaks of the " graceful rarabIing"-of 
Cowley in his essays and of "the courtly elegance 
and ease" of Addison. Of the names of old Kit 
Marlowe, of Drayton and of Drummond of Plaw- 
thornden he writes, that they carry perfume in the 
very mention of them. Sydney, Taylor, Fuller, Browne, 
De Foe and Walton are each in turn the subject of 
just and fervid eulogium. In the presence of Shake- 
speare he is fairly overawed and pretends to nothing 
more than the barest outline of his dramatic wealth. 
He speaks reverentially of his " divine mind and 
manners," and calls him, most fittingly, "the immeas- 
urable." With the aid of his sister, he gives to the 
children of the country an edition of Shakespeare 
suitable to their needs and as a stimulus to their 
mental life. As literary historians have noted, all 
this was at a time when Shakespeare and the earlier 
English authors were comparatively unstudied save 
by a chosen few. It was the inborn and cherished 
love of his native language that impelled Lamb to 
open the eyes of his countrymen, old and young, to 
the excellence of what had preceded. It is this 
Avhich as much as anything else gave to his style that 
racy, homelike element which made it readable then 
and preserves it as in amber now. It is thus that 
Lamb is to be classified in English Prose with Milton 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— LAMB. 371 

and Swift, with Dryden, Addison and Johnson as a 
special lover of English. His style is a home product 
and exponent. 

(2.) Humorous Element. 

It is at this point that we come in contact with 
the innermost nature of Lamb as a man and as a 
writer. 

It was this feature especially that made his in- 
tercourse with Southey and Coleridge, Hazlitt and 
Wordsworth so intensely enjoyable that they in love 
with the country and he with the city were never at 
rest in presenting reasons why they should live to- 
gether. This feature of style is but the reflex of 
the author's face with its roguish playfulness and 
serio-comic cast — a face full of the evidences of old- 
fashioned mother-wit. His face is always promising 
good things. With his long-drawn visage and cler- 
ical tie he seems as sumbre as a parson and, yet, 
there is something under the eyelids and about the 
mouth that warns one to loosen his bands and pre- 
pare for a constitutional shake. As the expression 
of this inside humor we note some specimens — "On 
Burial Societies and Undertakers;"*' On* The Incon- 
venience of Being Hanged"; ''On The Melancholy of 
Tailors" caused by their sedentary habits; and "On 
The Convalescent," a man who on his bed changes 
sides oftener than a politician. The bed is "a wavy, 
oceanic surface whose every furrow is an historical 
record of some shifting fortune. Now, he lies at half 
length; now, at full length; now, obliquely; now, 
transversely and none accuses him of tergiversation." 



372 ENGLISH PROSE. 

On being asked by an editor for a magazine article 
he replies — " In Articulo Mortis." To Woods, he 
speaks of an entertaining gentleman who had retired 
to a green old age on forty pounds a year and one. 
When suffering from a distressing cold, he writes to 
Barton ''that he can't distinguish veal from mutton; 
has not volition enough to dot his i's," and adds 
*' that if we should tell him that the world will be at 
an end to-morrow, he would reply — Will it?" He 
speaks of the two distinct races into which men are 
divided — the borrowers and the lenders. \i\ his 
chapter on — Ears — he tells us, that he has been prac- 
ticing — God save the King — all his life, whistliug and 
humming it over in solitary corners and has not yet 
arrived in many quavers of it. He tells us that he 
has been trying, all his life, to like Scotchmen but 
gives up the experiment in despair. In his article 
on " Grace before Meat" -he accounts for the origin of 
it in days of monastic life when a bellyfuU was a 
windfall and regarded as a special providence. In 
his "Bachelor's Complaint," and " Popular Fallacies," 
the same pleasantry prevails. In his "Dissertation 
on Roast Pig," the climax of wit is reached and the 
buttons all fly. In fine, the humor is all genuine 
humor, is pervasive rather than occasional. Some 
of his papers surpass the others in this quality and, 
yet, it is quite unnecessary to choose. Among all 
the leading English Essayists there is none in whom 
humor is so much an essential part of the man and 
of his style. This omitted, the distinctive peculiarity 
of Lamb is missed. Let the topic be what it may, 
there is no cessation of the mirthful jollity. He is 
as full of it as an q^^ is of meat or as a spring is of 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS.—LAMB. 373 

water. It must flow and overflow. Hence it is, 
that Gerald Massey and others have pronounced him 
the first English Humorist and placed his style in 
this element at the head. In his Preface to the 
second series of" the — Essays of Elia — he speaks of 
himself in the third person as follows — "He would 
interrupt the gravest discussion with some light 
jest." He could not restrain himself nor did he 
care to. 

He did what Burns did in poetry — gave vent to 
his inner self The reference of Carlyle to Lamb's 
wit as " make-believe " is as far as anything could be 
from the truth, and is but one specimen among many 
of Carlyle's one-sided opinions. 

There is one feature in the pleasantry of Lamb 
that needs emphasis. It is his partial or confirmed 
sadness. In this particular, he reminds one of Gold- 
smith, Hood, Sterne, Burns and otlier less gifted 
authors. The close relation of smiles to tears is no- 
where more manifest than in humor. Even where 
the element of positive sadness does not enter, there 
is more or less of sobriety and sudden trtinsition to 
seriousness in most humorists. The less of lliis there 
is, however, the more healthful is the humor. This 
in Lamb's case was excessive, at times, and it is the 
only feature that would cause one to question his po- 
sition as first among English Humorists. It is quite 
possible to prove, we think, that the humor of Dick- 
ens, Thackeray, Sidney Smith and other kindred prose 
writers is a higher type than that species which so 
draws upon our sympathies as, at times, to be painful. 
The end of true humor is pleasure. A certain degree 
of sensibility is essential to it, but when wholesome 



374: ENGLISH PROSE. 

sobriety develops into sadness and our feelings are 
enlisted so deeply as to occasion pain, humor over- 
reaches itself and misses its end. Just as the enjoy- 
ment of beauty cannot admit of the element of terror 
so that of humor excludes confirmed sadness. His 
latest biographer, Mr. Ainger, speaks of this quality 
as belonging " to the profound humanity of its author; 
to the circumstance that with him, as with all true 
humorists, humor was but one side of an acute and 
almost painful sympathy." Very true, if the sympathy 
is " almost " and not altogether "painful." Sympathy 
is one thing, Personal Suffering, is another. This 
tendency to the morbid apart, the prose of Lamb 
is a representative example of humorous prose. 
When he was in the best mood, and most free 
from that mental waywardness that so marred his 
life, his humo? had no superior in English Prose 
and it is in these hours that he is to be tested and 
enjoyed. 

He had the root and essence of humor in the 
hindliness of his spirit. He was more than a wit 
or a punster. Pie could not indulge in that cruel 
sarcasm in which Swift so freely indulged. He 
was full of that humanity which Thackeray empha- 
sizes as the basis of humor. Though he says of him- 
self — "that he too much affected that dangerous 
figure — irony," his satire was always tempered with 
good will. He " laughed with men " and not " at 
them." He protested that "he never could hate any 
one whom he knew." The epithet "gentle" so often 
applied to his name w^as well deserved. Worcester's 
definition of humor as — "kindly pleasantry" — marks 
the special excellence of his. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. —LAMB. 375 



(3.) Naturalness and Flexibility. 

Here again we strike oue of tlie great features of 
the author's prose. 

The epithet "dehghtful " as used by critics of his 
style, finds its justification here. Tliere was a certain 
fehcity of expression and general literary manner 
that won its way as it went on and makes it a diffi- 
cult matter to lay aside the reading of his papers. 
It is for this reason in connection with their hu- 
morous element that — The Essays of Eiia — have so 
charmed the English-reading public. All critics 
have spoken of a certain indescribable soinetliing 
about the style of Lamb. As Ainger states, "It 
evades analysis. One might as well seek to account 
for the perfume of lavender or the flavor of quince."' 
There is a kind of witchery or fliscinadou about ife 
that attracts and entertains us and we ourselves are 
at a loss to know why we are so interested. Other 
essayists have had a larger circle of readers but few 
have had a more devoted circle. Those of his own 
and succeeding times speak of him in terms of per- 
sonal affection. They forget the author in the man, 
or rather in accordance with the experience of Pascal, 
in looking for an author they find a man — "gentle- 
hearted" and broad-souled. If asked on what basis 
this attractiveness of style rests, it must be found in 
its Naturalness. No writer has ever been himself 
more than Lamb was Lamb. He was ingenuous to 
a fault, and often lays his style open to vindictive 
criticism by reason of his unstudied artlessness. He 
loved the Confessions of Rosseau, not because they 



376 ENGLISH PROSE. 

were Rousseau's but because they were Confessions — 
the natural outburst of the heart. lie preferred tiie 
style of Temple to that of Shaftesbury because it 
was "plain, natural chit-chat," and not formal or 
courtly. 

Critics who have failed to see into the interior of 
his character have accused him of egotism in its more 
extreme forms. They have called attention to the 
first personal pronoun in his writings and contrasted 
him unfavorably with other essayists at this point. 
In this judgment they have widely missed the mark 
and failed to discern one of the very secrets of the 
author's power — his intense personality, of which his 
naturalness is but the expression in form. As he 
says himself, " He would out with what came upper- 
most," and was grave or gay, imaginative or plain as 
the case might be. He had no particular method 
applicable at all times but in the best sense was a 
writer at large, freely descanting in his own natural 
way upon the topic of the time. Hence, the variety 
and "flexibility of the style. It is absolutely free 
from the literary vice of sameness. There is nothing 
stilted or made to order — nothing so fixed as not to 
be capable of change. As we have seen, this ten- 
dency, at times, degenerated to illogical rambling, 
but when at all under control, took the form of a 
pleasing variety and vivacity. " Few English writers 
have written so differently," says one, " on different 
themes." The manner is versatile and free so that 
where we lose in logical directness we gain in diver- 
sity and area. 

Reference has often been made to the author's apt 
and frequent use of quotations from those English 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— LAMB. 377 

authors whom he so much loved — from Browne and 
Burton; from Shakespeare and the dramatists; from 
Wordsworth and Milton. This habit is characteristic 
and yet nowhere is he more natural and nowhere is 
the literary richness of his style more marked. In 
his quotations no one ever thinks of literary ser- 
vility or base imitation. There was not the semblance 
of this. So far from it that he seemed to lend to the 
references he selected the character and charm of his 
own |>ersonality. This in itself is an art, but an art 
founded in nature and not feasible apart from it. He 
individualized and made his own whatever he used. 
He was an author of unusually wide knowledge of 
earlier and contemporar}^ literature. No one was 
more conversant with the best that had been written 
or could better appreciate it. He tells us in his essay 
on — Books and Reading — that he could read anything 
which he called a book. Where others were ignorant 
h.e was informed, and spoke of English authors with 
the ardor of a lover — as of Burns and Walton, 
Beaumont and Fletcher. All this made it easy for 
him to quote and, if convenient, to appropriate, while 
the fact that he quoted without appropriating but re- 
veals all the clearer the naturalness of his style. It 
is in this feature of style that Lamb's descriptive 
power appears. What he felt and saw he could tell 
just as it was. Other essayists have surpassed him 
in delineative skill and reach. As far, however, as 
naturalness of description is concerned, he has had no 
superior. He depicted the scene or character as he 
conceived it and in so far as he failed, it was due to 
other causes — want of comprehensiveness of view 
and want of constructive imagination. It is in his 



378 ENGLISH PROSE. 

humorous descriptions that he is at his best and it is 
here that naturalness is a vital quality of style. In 
such papers as — Recollections of the South Sea Home, 
Oxford in the Vacation, The Old Benches of the 
Inner Temple, and Imperfect Sympathies, this power 
of natural portraiture is clearly seen. 



(4.) Sympathetic Tenderness. 

It is difficult to state with clearness the precise 
nature of the quality to which we here refer. We 
might call it a kind of sensitiveness of style, deep and 
delicate as it is attractive. It is what the French 
critics might call, unction. It is what Milton would 
terra in poetry the " sensuous and passionate." A pure 
and tender feeling suffuses the pages of the author. 
One has to read but a little in order to see it and 
yield to its power. It is above all art. It defies ex- 
planation or statement. It is simply in the man and 
in the writing and a something by which the soul of 
the reader is fused into that of the author. They feel 
together. This element of style is partly due, beyond 
question, to that peculiar life of sadness which Lamb 
so often led and not altogether separate from those 
hours of mental anguish by which his experience 
was marked. There was just enough of the melan- 
choly about it to tinge and soften it. We speak of it 
here, however, as a healthful literary quality' and 
tending to strength. This is a feature more manifest 
in his Letters and prose romance than in — The Essays. 
In that personal correspondence which he held with 
Coleridge, Southey, Manning and others there was 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— LAMB. 379 

just enongli of the intimacy of friendship to elicit and 
f )ster this tenderness of heart, while in such a touch- 
ing story as that of Rosamond Gray, or the Dream- 
Children, this fineness of feeling reaches its climax. 
Critics speak of the " religious emotion" that per- 
vades it, while even Shelley was constrained to ac- 
knowledge its peculiar charm. Much of the diction 
of Lamb is sympathetic rather than scholastic. Out- 
side of oratory and lyric verse, there are few speci- 
mens of prose more justly entitled to the name of 
impassioned than that of Lamb. 

This quality of tenderness in style is unique and 
deserves special emphasis. Of all the English writers 
thus far discussed, not one is any more remarkable 
for this. The tendencies are all in the other direction 
— to the dispassionate and didactic or to what might 
be termed, a state of emotional indifference. The 
Augustan Age had nothing of it. Milton and Burke 
evinced a degree of fervor, and, yet, not of this sub- 
dued type. Many subordinate writers, such as — 
Fuller and Walton possessed it more deeply than 
their superiors. Even where it is found at all, as in 
Dickens, De Quincey and Eliot, it is generally found 
as exceptional and not as a pervasive and centra] 
quality. Cowper in his Letters and Burns and 
Wordsworth in their poetry have much of it. The 
prose that followed the revival of literature in the 
latter part of the eighteenth century is more marked 
by it than the prose of earlier times and, yet, Charles 
Lamb is quite alone in the depth and fullness of it. 
It is as much a part of his style as is its English 
character, its humor or its naturalness. These qnnli- 
ties together made up a style that without being 



380 ENGLISH PROSE. 

great or brilliaut is as attractive and satisfying as 
any in English Letters. 

It remains to speak of the — 

(5.) Critical Element in Lamb's Prose. 

We are here on entirely new ground as to the in- 
terpretation of the author. No estimate of his ability, 
style or place in English Literature can be at all just 
Avith this element omitted. It is, however, the very 
last feature that we should expect to find. There is 
nothing in the qualities thus far examined that 
necessarily leads to this further one. They would be 
complete without it. There is nothing in the authoE's 
life and character as a man, that would necessitate 
it. When discerned, it is not seen to be abnormal but 
simply unexpected. In Addison and Johnson, we 
look for it. In Lamb, it is a surprise. Hence it is, 
that most crit^'cs and readers come to the study of this 
characteristic of his style with some degree of literary 
pivjndice. " Is Saul, also, among the prophets ? " Can 
the "gentle-hearted," sensitive and timid author of 
Elia be bold enough to turn censor and sit in judg- 
ivient on his fellows? Has he the inclination to do 
it ? Has he the mental faculty ? However we might 
prefer to answer these questions, the facts are before 
us. The author has placed himself on record as a 
critic, especially of poetry and the drama. These 
papers form a body of literary criticism and must 
themselves be criticised as to the style they purport 
to exhibit. Lamb's critical style must rest on that 
portion of his prose which is critical as distinct from 
miscellaneous and descriptive, as follows: — 



REPRESENTATIVE WRfTERS.—LAMB. 3S1 



Critical Essays. 

The Genius and Character of Hogarili. The Artificial 
Comedy of the Last Century. The Tro.gedies of Shake- 
speare. The Barrenness of the Imaginative Faculty in 
the Production of Modern Art. The Poetical Works of 
George Wither. The Characters of Dramatic Writers. 
Specimens of the Englisit Dramatic Poets. 

In addition to these formal essays and this critical 
treatise on the poets, many of the Letters addressed 
to Southey, Coleridge and others were purely critical 
in character. The epistolary form gave them point 
and attractiveness. Here it will be noted, is quite 
sufficient subject matter on which to interpret Lamb's 
style as a critic and, yet, the most diverse judgments 
have been held. In his own da}^ he was most cruelly 
dealt with in certain quarters. He had an experience 
similar to that which Byron and Wordsworth had and 
his sensitive nature found it hard to bear it. Later 
critics have been found who were willing to continue 
this strain of abuse, or to speak of the author with 
*' faint praise." The burden of evidence, however, is 
in his favor, some going so far as to attribute to him 
with Southey " a special genius " in the critical art. 
In his — Letters — whenever he discusses English Po- 
etry, and in his — Specimens of Dramatists — are to be 
found the best examples of his critical style. 

As to this department of criticism he had certain 
prime qualifications — 

1. Thorough familiarity ivitli his subject; 

2. A deep affection for his language and. literature^ 

3. A sensitive aiypreciaiioh of poetic beauty. 



382 ENGLISH PROSE. 

He had " browsed " among the poets till he was 
full of their life and spirit, and some of his decis- 
ions indicate his critical acuteness. His remarks on 
Son they, Beaumont and Fletcher, Walton and Burns 
and, most especially, on Shakespeare indicate no or- 
dinary degree of literary insight. 

Special attention should be called to his critical 
style as seen in — The Specimens. The best descrip- 
tion of his unique method in Shakesperian criticism 
is given in his own words as contained in — The Pre- 
face: "The plays which I have made choice of have 
been, with few exceptions, those which treat of human 
life and manners rather than masques and Arcadian 
Pastorals. My leading design has been, to illustrate 
what may be called the moral sense of our ancestors; 
to show in what manner they felt when they placed 
themselves by the power of imagination in trying 
pitnations; how much of Shakespeare shines in the 
great men, his contemporaries, and how far in his 
divine mind and manners he surpassed them and all 
mankind." This is ingenuous and it is, for the time all 
new. There had been nothing like it, even in concep- 
tion, save in Dr. Johnson's commentaries, and it is 
questionable whether in the modern " anatomizing " 
of Shakespeare, there has been any improvement on 
this old and literal method of interpretation. In 
this respect Ainger is right in saying/' As a critic he 
had no master — it might almost be said, no predeces- 
sor. He was the inventor of his own art." More 
than this, he laid claim to no technical knowledge of 
language, no full acquaintance with classical times. 
He made no attempt to solve riddles nor did he spend 
liis time in attempting the impossible. His only aim 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— LAMB. 383 

was, to reveal his author to his readers; to present 
the inner man to view so that his literary personality 
is seen and sympathy is established. Such a method 
is not based on erudition as much as on poetic in- 
stinct. Such a style is maOre the outgrowth of a 
"sense of beauty " than of a knowledge of its laws. 
It is more intuitive than logical. This much can be 
said, that no one of Lamb's predecessors in prose knew 
anything of this kind of criticism. It was as foreign 
to Dryden and Pope as it was to Boileau. The essay- 
ists of Queen Anne knew but little of it. Lamb was 
in middle life when it arose and it arose largely with 
himself A few suggestions in his trenchant way 
would throw as much light on a character or scene 
as long discussions from the pen of Johnson. It is 
most interesting to note his special love of Shake- 
speare and the zeal with wdiich he pressed his great 
claims on others. Tf Lamb had done no other ser- 
vice for English Letters than this, his name should 
be ever held in loving remembrance. He entered 
heartily into that revival of Elizabethan days which 
marked the century in which he lived and was 
never weary of sounding the praises of the times 
preceding. 

His discussion of his own principle " that the plavs 
of Shakespeare are less calculated for performance 
on a stage, than those of almost any other dramatist" 
is one of the finest pieces of English criticism. 
Novel as the ])osition was, he ably defended it. 

T^Mmb. however, had his limitations as a critic and 
his style bears their impression. 

The main defects of his prose as critical are 
two. 



384 ENGLISH PROSE. 

IVIAIN DEFECTS OF HIS PROSE AS CRST8CAL 

(1.) Want of Impartialriy. 

His loves were too strong, at times, to allow of 
dispassionate judgment. He could not put himself 
into that state of indifference which is said to be 
essential to the critic. He had the strong bias. He 
was predisposed to this or that. His pre-judgment 
often controlled his judgment. Hence, it has been 
urged that he thought too well of the older dramat- 
ists to pass a safe opinion on them. It has been said 
— " Where his heart was, there his judgment was 
sound." It must be added that there was, at times, 
so much heart that the clear decisions of the head 
were unduly modified. It is thus that every reader 
of his views on English writers of the earlier period 
must bear in mind Lamb's passionate devotion to 
those times. Despite this prejudice, however, it is 
still true that he set forth the real merits of the older 
dramatists in such a way that most of his critical 
opinions still pass unchallenged. 

(2.) Want of Comprehensiveness. 

Lamb's mind was more acute than it was broad. 

vSome literary historians have applied to him the 
epithet of Shakespearian. In some respects this was 
true — as to poetic sensibility and devotion to dramatic 
art. It is not true, how^ever, as to that broad reach 
of iutellectual power for which the great poet was so 
noted. Lamb's area as a reader was much larger 
than his area as a thinker. He can never be properly 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— LAMB. 385 

credited with a Baconian order of mental power nor 
did he possess that critical compass of mind which 
marked De Quincey. As fur as his reach extended, 
he was skillful in the art of criticism. Beyond that 
limit, he was out of his well defined area and is to be 
followed with caution. 

It is not, however, so much on the critical basis 
that his style rests as on the other elements to which 
reference has been made. In the light of those, it 
must be maintained that although Lamb wrote but 
comparatively little prose, his name cannot be well 
spared from the list of our leading prose authors. 
What he wrote was characteristic, so much so, that 
his style is definitely marked from that of (jthers. 
Moreover, with all his defects he wa-ote so well that 
he illustrated his own theory of English style — "good 
thoughts in good language," and is a yyorthy example 
to present to the notice of English students. It is 
probable that as a writer he will always be ranked 
somewhat above his real merits in that his genial 
spirit has won so many hearts and disarmed preju- 
dice. What critics themselves would begrudge to 
such an author as Swift they would cheerfully accord 
to Lamb. He will always get the benefit of the 
doubt. The essays of The Spectator and Rambler 
may fail to hold their ground when — The Essays of 
Elia still survive in freshness of interest. The same 
remark may be made of his felicitous papers and of 
his general productions as a writer which he himself 
made of Walton's Complete Angler, " that it would 
sweeten a man's temper at any time to read them." 
The praise which Matthew Arnold borrow^s from 
Swift and often affectedly misapplies — " sweetness 



386 ENGLISH PROSE. 

and light" may well be applied to that genial and 
sympathetic style of which Charles Lamb is the 
natural master. 

References and Authorities. 

Ainger's Life of (Eng. Men of Let.). Essays of Elia, 
etc. A JMemoir of Lamb (Barry Cornwall). Life and 
Letters (Talfourd). Hood's Literary Reminiscences. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PEOSE STYLE OF THOMAS BABESTaTON 
MACAULAY. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born at Rothley Temple, Oct. 25th, 1800. In Cam- 
bridge, 1818; B.A., 1822. A Fellow of Trinity, M.A., 
1825. Called to the Bar (Lincoln's Inn) 1826. En- 
tered Parliament, 1830, for Calne. Entered Parliar 
ment, 1832, for Leeds. Became Secretary of Board 
of Control for India. In India 1835-8. In Parlia- 
ment from Edinburgh, 1839. Secretary of War, 
1840. Retired from Parliament, 1847 Lord Rector 
of Glasgow University, 1849. Re-elected to Parlia- 
ment, 1852. Raised to Peerage, 1857. Died, Dec. 
18tb, 1859, in Kensington. 

Prose Works. 

As far as the prose works of Macaulay are con- 
cerned, with reference to the study of style, they are 
included in — The History of England, and his — 
Essays. 

Although he had proposed to write this history 
" from the accession of James II. down to a time 
within the memory of men still living " — as far indeed, 
as to the death of George IV., it covers, in fact, but a 



888 REPRESENTA TIVE WRITE RS.~MA CA ULA V. 

small portion of the nation's life, closing with the 
death of William of Orange. 

His essays have been judicionsly classified by Mori- 
son as follows: 

1. English History — Burleigh, Hallam, Hampden, 
Milton, Temple, Mackintosh, Walpole, Pitt, Chatham, 
Clive and Hastings. 

2. Foreign History — Machiavelli, Mirabeau, Van 
Kanke, Frederic and Baiere. 

3. Controversial —yii\\ Saddler, Southey, and Glad- 
stone. 

4. Critical and Miscellaneous — Dryden, Montgomery, 
Byron, Bunyan, Johnson, Bacon, Hunt, and Addison. 

These several series include respectively, twelve, 
five, four and eight papers, making in round numbers, 
thirty productions of this periodical order. 

It is not necessary here to follow the example of 
many critics and aim to prove the superiority of these 
specimens of prose to the History of England. For 
the purposes of the student of English, it is better to 
regard them as complements of each other, the one 
supplying what the other lacks. In what is called 
the historical essay and in which Macaulay so suc- 
ceeded, there is found the best possible example of 
the union of these two forms of prose-narrative and 
miscellany. 

Popular Estimate of his Prose Style. 

Popularity, in the looser sense of the term, is not to 
be regarded as a true criterion either of character or 
ability. In the higher sense, however, it may be so 
accepted and enters as an important factor among 



REPRE SENT A TIVE WRITERS.— MA CA ULA V. 389 

others in making up the status of an author or a 
00 ok. 

Lord Macaukiy must be classed among the popuhxr 
writers of English Prose in the first half of the present 
centary. From the date of his formal entrance upon 
authorship, in his Essay on Milton, published in the 
Edinburgh Review, in 1825, on to the date of his 
death, in 1859, his prose may be said to have been 
inferior to that of no one of his contemporaries in the 
hold which it had upon the respect and admiration 
of the English people. Since his death and the com- 
mitment of his writings to posterity and to criticism, 
his prose still has a substantial place in English Let- 
ters. The one who denies his claim to be ranked 
among the first examples of English style, must see 
to it that he be prepared to maintain his difficult posi- 
tion. It is probably true, that even at this day, no 
history of England, covering the era which Macaulay 
treats, is often er read or read with more intelligent 
interest than is his. It is, also, probable that tke 
modern English student is as familiar with ]\Iacau- 
lay's essays as with those of any other prominent 
essayist of the century. Much of his essay prose, it 
is true, is superseded, as to its subject matter, by the 
course of events. Much of it was called forth by 
local and even partisan issues and served its purpose 
when it was penned. 

]\Iost of his readers care but little now as to what 
he said concerning Walpole, Clive and Hastings, or 
as to Machiavelli and Mirabeau. Some have gone so 
far as to say, that the partisan character of his essays, 
as a class, makes them unreliable for purposes of refer- 
ence. The same criticism will apply to the historical 



390 ENGLISH PROSE. 

prose. Even of these prose productions, however, it 
may be stated, that the literary form in which they 
are cast and preserved is such as to make their present 
perusal an aesthetic pleasure to the intelligent critic 
of style. Such essays as those on — Temple, Hallam, 
Hampden and the Pitts, local as was their origin, will 
maintain their interest as long as English Literature 
has a history. Even such faulty papers as those on 
Bacon, Addison and Milton still attract and charm us. 
Such a general and sustained literary reputation 
as this in prose indicates the presence of qualities of 
excellence. Popularity, in this case, means some 
degree of merit. No fortaitous combination of cir- 
cumstances can do for a man what Macaulay did for 
himself in this particular. The orator and the poet 
may owe more to native talent than to patient in- 
dustry. It is not so with the prose writer. A care- 
ful study of his style will reveal his excellences and 
errors. 

AMALYSiS OF HIS STYLE. 

(1.) Skill in Narrative and Descriptive Writing. 

This skill is observable in each of these species of 
prose as, separately, also, in their combination, as Nar- 
rative-Descriptive. In that prose which is specifically 
historical as, in — The History of England — it is natu- 
ral to find this pecuhar type of literary expression. 
History, as a record of events, must be largely nar- 
rative and as involving the portraiture of persons and 
scenes must be largely descriptive. This feature of 
style, however, is not confined to the history proper 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS. —MA CA ULA V. 391 

or even to those of his essays which may be called 
historical, but finds expression in all the prose he has 
written. 

It is the Narrative-Descriptive style in its best 
form and when it is seen what are the essential ele- 
ments of prose discourse included in such a style, the 
mastery of Macaulay's pen in this special province 
will be evident. 

(a.^ Clearness of Presentation. 

This is the -first mark of good writing and is an in- 
tegral part of that order of style now in question. 
Whatever may or may not be said of Macaulay's 
prose, it cannot be justly accused of obscurity. The 
student is not required, as in the case of Carlyle and 
Emerson, to read and read again in order to be sure 
of the meaning. The language used is its own best 
interpreter and is always chosen with scrupulous care 
to express in the plainest terms the idea intended. 
Macaulay had, as every notable writer has had, some 
unsparing critics. There was everything in the 
attitude of the Edinburgh Eeview; in the political 
history of the time and in his brilliant career as a 
writer which incited his opponents to the sharpest 
censorship. The weak points of his style would of 
course be mercilessly exposed. It is noticeable, how- 
ever, that very little is said as to ambiguity of style, 
llie fact is, that much of the criticism to which he was 
subjected was itself the best commentary on his liter- 
ary clearness. His meaning was too well understood. 
There was no question as to the mark at which he 
was aiming, what he was saying and why he was 
saying it. In such an essay as that on Warren 
llasliugs or Horace Walpole, the reader has an ex- 



392 ENGLISH PROSE, 

ample as to how Macaulay could make himself tinder- 
stood. The thought is clearly conceived and clearly 
phrased. If we look more narrowly into this feature 
of Macaulay 's prose, it will be found to bear examina- 
tion. It is evident from his biography that he made 
clearness a prime object in writing; that he severely 
revised his own style with reference to it and that he 
studied authors and men in the light of it. It is cer- 
tainly a matter greatly to his credit as stated by his 
most recent biographer — that the workingmen of 
England sent him their thanks for writing a history 
that they could understand. 

It is of special interest here to note that the prose 
of Macaulay in respect to its clearness was in every 
sense true to the claims of the liome language- There 
are but few representative writers of English whose 
istyle so happily avoids the extreme of pedantry on 
the one hand, and that of purism, on the other. His 
prose is true to that high and safe rhetorical principle 
in action, that the best v^rord under the circumstances 
is to be used, whatever its origin may be. It is in 
carrying out this law that the just claims of all kin- 
dred tongues will be met and, yet, the precedence be 
given to the native speech. Mr. Marsh's estimate of 
his diction in the Essay on Bacon, as seventy-five per 
cent as to its English, is below rather than above the 
truth aud will fairly express the average percentage 
of English throughout his works. His papers are full 
of Saxon monosyllables and dissyllables. As a rule, 
he seeks the shorter terms and phrases. While not 
as fully Saxon as Bunyan and De Foe, he is a long 
way in advance of Paeon, Hooker, Milton, Johnson, 
and is, in this respect, a suiEciently safe standard for 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MAC AULA Y. 393 

the English student. His clearness was largely the 
result of pure English. 

(b.) Copiousness of Style. 

This quality might be stated in other terms as, 
Ease, Facility or Fluenc3^ It is an expression of 
literary art which seems to have all the freedom 
of nature and gives to the reader the happy impres- 
sion of the fullness of the author. The older English 
writers would call the style,/erfi7e. It involves what 
is properly termed, the art of amplification or para- 
phrase. It is the fullest possible expression of an 
idea within the limits of rhetorical brevity. No 
writer previous to Macaulay so richly possessed this 
element. It is one of the latest and most difficult 
results of literary labor. Although found in Macau- 
lay's earliest prose, its quality is much higher in his 
more mature writing. Copiousness in his Essay on 
jMilton is one thing and in the best parts of the 
History, quite another. Natural gifts apart, it de- 
pends on a wide and choice area of reading; on a 
close study of words, native and foreign, and, above 
all, on a healthful literary taste to discern and appre- 
ciate whatsoever is good. These things make what 
Bacon calls — " the full man " ; what older critics 
called in the best sense, a voluble man. The words 
roll out in rich profusion. The style is copious. Nor 
is this ease of expression confined to the diction of 
his narrations and descriptions, but enters into all 
the style. The thought itself flows smoothly and 
freely on. There are no bands or restrictions. Much 
of the attractiveness of the author's prose is found 
jnst here. The reader is not asked to plod through 
the pages as through the heavy style of Barton and 



394 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Browne, pitying, at every turn, the crudeneRs and 
bondage of the author, but is carried by the author 
liiraselfon the high tide of his thought and feeling. 
One often wonders at the ease with which he is 
transported from point to point. There is a charm 
in the verbal and mental fullness. The style is com- 
pletel}^ ehiborated without being labored. It is not 
denied that danger lurks at the very door of this 
quality, in the tendency to verboseness — in a copious- 
ness where ideas and words are in the inverse ratio. 
Macaulay has been sharply dealt wath as to diffuse- 
ness of style. Common readers as well as the critics 
have noted it. No impartial judge of his prose can 
deny the justness of the accusation. " When he has 
to tell us " says Morison, " that the Reformation 
greatly diminished the wealth ,of the Church of 
England, it costs him two pages to say so." 

Macaulay had his own reasons for much of this 
wordiness. It was partly unavoidable and partly 
intentional. His habit, from early life, of reading 
all that came to hand and of seeing what he saw in 
many different phases; his marvelous memory in 
holding what he had and reproducing it and his 
spacious wealth of diction, made it quite impossible 
for him to be satisfied with the one statement of an , 
idea. He must present it and re-present it. On the 
other hand, his theory of style, especially as applied 
to narrative writing, made it necessary for him to be 
copious up to the verge of prolixity. He often passed 
that verge and 'did what Swift and Dickens did in 
fiction — incurred the charge of tedious redundancy. 
Despite this fault, however. Pope, had he been living, 
might have spoken of the copious Macaulay as he did 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS ~MA CA ULA Y. 395 

of the "copious Drjden." There was a real richness 
of word and phrase — a latent store of resources al- 
ways accessible at need. The style withal is natural 
and original. It is the author's own. His digressions 
are too many and too long but, in time, he always 
returns to the main idea as Swift did and as Hooker 
did not. In the true sense of the term, his prose 
style is voluminous. The best that can be said of it 
at this point is, that this copiousness at times degen- 
erated to diffaseness, but in the main, kept within 
the limits of literary law and added interest to the 
narrative. If he is " one of the best story-tellers " in 
Modern-Englisli, story-tellers must have some liberty. 
There is such a theory as Prose-License. 

(c.) Pictorial Skill. 

This is an essential feature of the Descriptive order 
of prose. It might, without error be called — The 
Descriptive Style. Critics often refer to it as, the 
graphic or picturesque form of prose. It is closely 
allied to that literary clearness and copiousness of 
which we have spoken and, yet, is a feature distinct 
in itself The French speak of it as, the power of 
depicting or painting. It marks the border line 
between prose and poetry and is especially prominent 
in that exceptional kind of prose known as poetical. 
In this department of style, Macaulay has done nota- 
ble work. It is difficult to state whether this feature 
is more prominent in the essays or in the history. It 
is visible in the style throughout and gives to it that 
imaginative tinge and vividness of coloring which 
the most cursory reader of Macaulay must have 
noticed. In giving us his definition of history this 
feature is emphasized. He writes — " History is a 



396 ENGLISH PROSE. 

compound of poetry and philosophy." The special 
stress laid upon the poetic or pictorial element is seen 
as he explains the definition. " It impresses truths on 
the mind by a vivid representation of characters and 
incidents." As we shall see hereafter, whatever 
Macaulay intended to do in the way of combining 
the poetic and philosophic in historical prose, and 
giving them equal place, he actually magnified the 
poetic at every point and made the narrative a real 
story in the sphere of the imaginative. Much of the 
prose reads as if it were in the realm of fiction. It 
represents in prose what Historical Plays represent 
in dramatic poetry. 

Here, again, Macaulay exposed himself to the 
judgment of the critics and has been strongly con- 
demned by many of them as guilty oi excessive orna- 
ment in style. His prose is said to pass the limits of 
prose proper and enter the domain of the poetic. It 
is alleged, that as an essayist and historian he at- 
tempts the role of the novelist and subordinates the 
didactic element in narrative to. the pictorial and 
attractive. 

There is truth in all this. There is a sense in which 
the radical defect of Macaulay's style lies just here — 
in the love of excessive finish, in over abundant met- 
aphor, in literary painting rather than in the logical 
elaboration of the idea for substantial ends. He 
seems to delight far too much in embellishment for 
its own sake and would artfully decoy the reader 
from idea to imagery. Hence, the reader must be 
constantly awake to the detection and interpretation 
of the figurative element. Metaphors and Similes 
become ends in themselves. The description takes 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS— MAC AULA Y. 397 

precedence as to interest of the scene or object de- 
scribed and fact succumbs to fiction. It is difficult 
at times to tell where we are, whether on firm ground 
or in mid air. Komance and reality are so blended 
that the result is, at times, confusing. All this con- 
ceded, however, much of the peculiar power of 
Macaulay's prose is in its pictorial feature in so far 
as it is healthfully exhibited. No impartial critic 
could afford to decry this. There is a higher grade 
of delineative skill that marks the author as an his- 
torical artist. There is a boldness and definiteness 
of outline which at once attracts attention, awakens 
interest and represents the idea more clearly than 
could otherwise be done. It does with the thought 
what the old limners did with the typography of the 
book — sets it forth in such graphic portraiture that 
the reader may take the sketch as a verbal frame- 
work and fill in for himself the completed picture. 
Some of the author's most brilliant passages are of 
this picturesque order. After reading theui they 
hang before the mind's eye with all the vividness of 
a great painting. This characteristic of style is sig- 
nally present in the History and the historical essays, 
when the author is delineating some striking char- 
acter or scene. When he has done, the lineament? 
are as clear as if they were sculptured in bas-reliet 
and could be approached and touched. There is here 
an important province of literary art and it is safe to 
say that no writer of English Prose has excelled 
Macaulay in it. No one of his predecessors, John 
Bunyan apart, at all approximated him. De Qiiincey 
and the great English novelists — Scott, Dickeus and 
Thackeray — had much of the same skill. Prescoft 



898 ENGLISH PROSE. 

and Motley of our own country are his closest 
petitors in this field of historical art. 

Critics, such as Leslie Stephens, have gone too "-' 
in a wide-sweeping denunciation of this feature of 
Macaulay's style. M orison, in his excellent biography 
assumes safer ground when he calls attention to this 
quality in some specimen passages and challenges 
the critics to decry it. 

Descriptive writing is one of the leading forms of 
prose and ever inviting more attention. There is 
such a thing as legitimate Word-Painting by which 
f^ameness of style is relieved and the meaning made 
more effective. Macaulay would have undoubtedly 
gained reputation and more permanent influence had 
lie used imagery and ornament more sparingly. 
Still, great care is to be taken lest while this is con- 
ceded we lose sight of that exceptional descriptive 
skill which he possessed and which goes very far to 
explain the facts that his essays and history are still 
in demand among us. 



(2.) Excellence of Sentence Structure. 

Macaulay was the Lombard of his age — a master 
of sentences. What his biographer, Mr. Trevelyan, 
states, would seem to be confirmed, " that he never 
allowed a sentence to pass muster until it was as 
good as he could make it," until every sentence ran 
as smoothly as running water and every paragraph 
closed with a telling clause. 

He believed, with De Qamcey, that there was no 
more important matter in prose discourse than sen- 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS— MA CA ULA V. 399 

tence building — the formation of tlie frame of the 
thought. Very much of that devotion to detail, of 
which we read in his life, was spent in this direction, 
until he at length formed the habit of shaping his 
words in the clearest and most cogent manner. All 
readers of Macaulay must have been impressed with 
his skill in mere structure, in what has been termed, 
the " ineclianology " of style. There is a marked ab- 
sence of those harsh and crude constructions that 
indicate the presence of the novice. The successive 
transitions from clause to clause are so carefully ad- 
justed as to give all the effect of narturalness to the 
style. Artifice gives place to a genuine literary art. 
So distinctive is this element in the author's style 
that a good manual of sentence-structure might be 
compiled from the pages of his prose. All writers 
upon the Art of Discourse must make frequent refei^ 
ence to Macaulay. 

There are two types of sentence which are especi- 
ally frequent not so much because they were favorites 
with the author as that they are in themselves the 
best rhetorical forms. 

(a) The Periodic Sentence. 

In this, as is known, the clauses are arranged 
rhetorically rather than grammatically. The object 
is not so much to arrange subject, predicate and 
adjuncts as a matter of syntax as it is to present the 
parts of the sentence in the order of their relative 
importance. The thought determines the form. The 
result is that of the logical climax. In the frequency, 
correctness and force of this progressive structure, 
Macaulay's prose is a model. So apt is he in its use, 
that almost any page erf his writing may be taken at 



400 ENGLISH PROSE. 

random for purposes of example. Gross violations of 
propriety are almost unknown in his prose while 
even where the Loose Sentence is used, it is so terse 
and skillfully combined as to give to the leading 
thought the prominence it deserves. Though, as in 
most writers, where the periodic sentence prevails, 
the shorter form is preferred, special attention is to 
be called to the excellence and comparative frequency 
in Macaulay of the longer structure. In no English 
prose of equal amount can there be found so many 
correctly formed Periodic Paragraphs or Periods. 
Some of them are of such length and import as to 
manifest consummate skill in their construction. A 
series of snch paragraphs is often found in which the 
double and difficult result is reached of maintaining 
the unity of each separate paragraph and the commou 
unity of all. 

It is just here that the oratorical feature of the 
author's prose comes into prominence and finds its 
explanation. Literary historians have noted this 
quality. " Macau lay's natural aptitude'' says Morison 
" was oratorical rather than literary." Nor is the 
reference here exclusively to his special power in 
parliamentary address when he came face to face 
with an English audience as a defender of the Keform 
Bill. His brilliant success here is well known and 
the eulogiums of Peel and Gladstone are a matter of 
history. His speeches in the House of Commons, it 
IS to be noted, are a substantial part of his prose 
work and cannot be left out of the account in deter- 
mining his rank as a writer. We refer here, how- 
ever, to his distinctively literary prose as possessed 
of much of this oratorical force and this, as the 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MACAULAY. 401 

result of skillful periodic structure. The parts of the 
paragraph are adjusted with reference to their best 
effect. As we peruse the peri6ds,tbe result is impres- 
sive as well as enlightening. The reader is often 
aroused to a high degree of ardor and feels the hand 
of a master. Hence it is, that many parts of Macau- 
lay's history read as an oration reads, while his es- 
says abound in passages which in their emotive vigor 
remind one of the best selections from Burke and 
Pitt. There is no marked degree of oratorical grace 
but the presence of true English stamina is there and 
it is telling. Most of this effect is due, of course, to 
the inherent force of the subject matter. Much of it 
is, also, due to what has been well termed " the 
luminous order and logical sequence of the parts" of 
the structure. It is impossible to understand what is 
meant by a recent critic in calling Macaulay " clumsy". 
in sentence structure. His bitterest opposers have 
conceded to him this form of skill as a writer. 

(b) Tht Balanced Sentence. 

This species of sentence is equally frequent and 
characteristic. Though not so prominent as in the 
Essays of Bacon, it is sufficiently so to call for special 
notice. The reader advances but a short way ere he 
discovers this antithetical bias. It is in this part of 
the author's work that there is seen the reason of 
much of his literary power as an historian. This is 
especially so in that work of delineation which has 
been mentioned. 

It often occurs that this graphic portraiture of 
men behind the facts of historj^ can best be set 
forth by the use of sharp contrast rather than 
by progressive statement. History and Prose Fie- 



402 ENGLISH PROSE. 

tion have this element in common and are thus 
together related to descriptive discourse. What 
is knovrn by the dramatist as, the power of char- 
acterization, is here needed and illustrated. Ma- 
can lay's prose is marked by this. He was 
fond of studying men and things by their op- 
posites. An idea no sooner presented itself to him 
than he saw all the possible ideas with which it 
might be contrasted. He explained the positive and 
negative by each other. In the province of logic, it 
is the argument from contraries. This use of anti- 
thesis gives point and pungency to the style; lends 
to it a degree of interest which wins attention and 
succeeds where other forms would fall. His con- 
trasts between Dante and Milton ; between the Puri- 
tan and other religious orders; between Flastingsand 
other culprits; between Frederic the Great and other 
rulers and between his own times and those pre- 
ceding — all mark him as a master of this type of 
sentence. He had a keen eye to the differences of 
things. 

Some of the examples of antithesis will be of 
interest to the student and general reader. 

"The poetry of Milton differs from that of Dante as the hiero- 
glyphics of Egypt differed from the picture writing of Mexico. 
The images which Dante employs speak for themselves. Those of 
Milton have a signification which is often discernible to the initiated 
only." 

"LfOgicians may reason about abstractions but the great mass of 
men must have images." 

"The character of Milton was peculiarly distinguished by lofti- 
ness of spirit; that of Dante, by intensity of feeling." 

Of Charles I., he says — 



REPRESEMTA TIVE WRITERS. —MA CA ULA Y. 403 

*'We charge him with having broken his coronation oath and we 
are told that he kept his marriage vow. We censure him for having 
violated the articles of The Petition of Eight and we are informed 
that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six in the morning." 

"The Puritan was made up of two different men; the one, all 
self-abasement, penitence, gratitude, passion; the other, proud, 
calm, inflexible, sagacious. He prostrated himself in the dust 
before his Maker but he set his feet on the neck of his king." 

Such are some of these numerous examples of con- 
trasted structure. Clause is set over against clause 
with all the mechanism of architectural law and 
ideas are made to face and explain each other. 

It is suggestive to note, in this connection, that 
much of Macaulay's power as a prose satirist finds its 
interpretation here. This form of sentence is related 
to satire somewhat as the periodic is to oratory. The 
plain straightforward structure is not crisp and terse 
enough for the purposes of irony. It is, moreover, 
too honest to give expression to any double meaning 
or in any way to conceal the truth. In poetry and 
prose alike, all successful satirists have dealt largely 
in counter statement. Butler in Hudibras; Pope, in 
The Dunciad; Dryden, in his epistles; Swift, in his 
allegories and Addison, in his papers, have all freely 
used it. M;icaulay knew his forte. He saw, at once, 
that his age demanded satirical prose as Dryden's did 
(poetry) satirical As Plutarch saw fit to describe 
his characters by parallels, Macaulay chose antithesis 
and succeeded. The historic scenes and personages 
that he has thus portrayed form a part of the common 
literary stock of every age. 

At this point, once again, the critics are awake and 
in arms. 

Macaulay's prose is said to carry antithesis too far. 



404 ENGLISH PROSE. 

The balanced structure overreached itself. Form, it 
is argued, takes precedence of subject matter in that 
truth and good taste are alike sacrificed to complete 
the verbal contrast. Mechanology is again the vice. 

Not a little of the author s prose is clearly open to 
this accusation, especially so, where the contrasts are 
multiplied at great lengths so that the thought re- 
turns upon itself There are times when the natural 
order would seem to be anything but epigrammatic 
and, yet, the author insists on presenting the idea in 
this form. Beginning a paragraph with a contrasted 
sentence, this form is maintained throughout as if 
from sheer fancy or artifice. His notable lack of 
genuine humor, as seen in Lamb and Addison, is 
largely attributable to the fact that the satirical ele- 
ment enters into all his pleasantry. Still, criticism has 
been unduly severe at this point. In aiming to ac- 
count for that degree of literary currency which the 
writings of Macaulay have had in enlightened circles, 
it would be difficult to assign the leading place to any 
one quality of prose style. This epigrammatic brevity, 
hovvever, must be admitted as a factor here, nor is it 
unworthy of notice that such a structure is all the 
more a mark of skill in that it reveals insight and 
discrimination. Literary antithesis when of the true 
order marks anything but superficiality. It marks 
the presence of ideas as the basis of contrast. 

Every critical reader of Macau I ay's prose wishes 
there had been somewhat less of this type of sentence. 
As it is, however, it is thoroughly in keeping with the 
author's theory of style, with the peculiar quality of 
his mental power and his personal cliaracteristics. 

In other hands, it would have been more abused 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS.— MA CA ULA Y. 405 

and can never be safely imitated by the aspiring 
writer as a cardinal excellence of style. 

The Balanced Structure, properly viewed, is excep- 
tional and not regular. Its purpose is to secure vari- 
ety and occasional point and not to furnish the staple 
form of sentence. 

Macaulay's prose without the epigrammatic element 
would be another and inferior order of prose. Hence, 
it follows that antithesis is a good thing in its place, 
but has its limits. Organism is better than Mechan- 
ism. The study of Carlyle will reopen this discussion 
as to antithesis. 

(3.) Literary Personality. 

By this is meant not so much that the style is ori- 
ginal as that it is individual. It has a character and 
tone peculiar to itself by which it may easily be dis- 
tinguished from that of preceding and contemporary 
writers. Flis style was his own to that degree that it 
carries with it its own interpretation and credentials. 
The discerning literary age is never at a loss to de- 
tect it, whatever its surroundings may be. Hence, 
it is, that "Macaulay did what but few authors of Eng- 
lish, may be said to have done. He founded and 
transmitted an English prose style of his own for the 
introduction of which he was as much responsible as 
is the inventor for his new patent. Whatever it was 
in other particulars, it was novel to the eye. It was 
IMacaulayan. In this respect he did what Bacon, 
Milton, Addison and Jidmson did in their respective 
epochs. He wrote in his own way and did it so 
etfectually as to establish a kind of a standard and to 



406 ENGLISH PROSE. 

gather followers. By this individual method in liter- 
ary art, he raised himself immeasurably above the 
gi-eat majority of his contemporaries, while the large 
number of iiis imitators in England and America tes- 
tifies to the importance of his work. 

A remarkable fact as to the personality of ' Macau- 
lay's style is, that it was so developed and maintained 
in the face of strong temptations to surrender it. It 
is known from the statements of his biographers that 
he was as conversant with preceding and current 
literature as was any man of his age. He was con- 
versant with all the existent forms of expression 
many of which had been accepted as models by the 
best critical opinion of the time. Though his style 
is antithetical as Bacon's was, it is in no sense. 
Baconian. Though it is clear and copious as was 
that of Swift and Addison, it is in no sense 
Augustan. 

He used the forms of sentence which Milton and 
Johnson used, though in a different way, while satire 
with him was quite a different thing from satire 
in the essays of Lamb. If, as we are told, the style 
is the man, then the personality of Macaulay's writ- 
ings must be assigned a high rank. A question of 
interest arises here as to the degree in which in- 
dividuality of style is a test and mark o^ personal 
ability. It is a question specially difficult to.decide in 
tlie case of Macanlay. Reasoning abstractly, it must 
be granted that inventiveness of means and methods, 
other things being equal, indicates inherent grasp and 
power. Historically, however, these forms of power 
are found to be in many cases quite dissevered. Mr. 
Morison, in his recent biography, decides this ques- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MACAULAY. 407 

tion against the author while admitting the truth of 
the principle in theory. '' Real novelty of style," he 
says, "is generally a safe test of originality of mind 
and character. With Macaulay the test does not ex- 
tend so far." This we believe to be the safer position. 
As we shall see, hereafter, Macaulay's theory of style 
was such that he could easily separate form from sub- 
stance. With him, therefore, originality of style 
meant simply — newness of method. It did not ne- 
cessarily involve or indicate with him high creative 
genius in the sphere of prose. His style is original 
in prose as that of Pope's was in poetry, not original 
as that of Milton, Burns, and Wordsworth was. On 
this plane, however, of individuality of method, he 
had no superior. Despite the high examples already 
existing in the persons of his predecessors, his own 
modus was revolutionary in English Prose. It was 
neither Elizabeth an nor Augustan, but Georgian Prose. 
It was, in fact, the inauguration of Modern Prose as. 
it dates from the opening of the nineteenth century 
and as illustrated in the writings of De Quincey and 
succeeding authors. There was something about it 
that attracted attention merely as to the novelty of 
its form. The essay and the history had never been 
written just so before or in a maruner quite so engag- 
ing. Whatever it Avasas.a style, it challenged the 
examination of all those who were watchhig the his- 
torical development of English Prose. There was a 
freshness about it indicative of newness. Swift and 
Addison were animated in style but here was an 
order of prose possessed of still more life and range. 
It looked forward along the century for its inspiration 
rather than to the times of the Tudors. It was a 



408 ENGLISH PROSE. 

prose fully in keeping with the age that produced it 
and to that degree marks its author as an interpreter 
of his tinie. The notable line of English novelists 
and essayists that followed owed something, at 
least, ot their literary success to the impulses that 
were then at work. Charles Lamb and the later 
Britisli Orators largely contributed to this fresher 
impulse in prose. 

Mere personality in literary art is no mark of excel- 
lence. It may belong to authors of second and third- 
rate excellence. Robert Burton and Sir Thomas 
Browne Avere such authors — original in style and in 
no sense models of prose. In fact, such personality, 
often, takes the form of literary eccentricity and is 
in the inverse ratio of literary power. Real individ- 
uality of sfyle as in Bacon and Burke must be but one 
among many qualities of excellence, developing with 
them and developed by them. In this sense Carlj^le 
and Emerson had styles of their own, and in this 
sense, personality is a mark of merit. At this point 
Macaulay is open to just criticism. 

THE CHIEF DEFECTS OF MACAULAY'S PROSE. 

(1.) Want of IriteSlectual Depth and Vigor. 

It may be said with safety that the trend of all 
later criticism of our author s style is in this direction. 
Critics are well nigh agreed that the true test here 
must be at the intellectual point and that the test 
exposes radical defect. In confirmation of this view, 
some 'particulars may be noted. 

(a) Macaulay s Theory of Style was siijperjicial. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—MACAULAY. 409 

We have alluded to the philosophic distinction that 
De Quincey makes in his Essay on Style, bet\veen 
Mechanology and Organology. By the first is nieant, 
that the main element in style is grammatical struc- 
ture; that style is purely an external thing subject 
to rigid rule and that the main object of literary ex- 
pression. is artistic form in order to gratify the assthetic 
taste of the reader On this basis, the French theory 
as to the virtue of embellishment as an end in itself 
is correct and the chief aim of the writer is figurative 
finish. 

By Organology is meant, that matter controls form ; 
that the writer's main purpose is to express his 
thought and himself: that language is a medium only 
and not an end; that external adornment is good in 
its place but incidental; that the grammatical is 
secondary to the rhetorical and literary, in a word, 
that Discourse is the expression of intellectual life. 
It is organic. 

Of these two methods, Macaulay's prose illustrates 
mainly the first — the constructive theory of style in- 
stead of the vital and natural. Whatever the author's 
pretensions were, this was his uniform literary prac- 
tice. Hence, his essays and history, as stated, are so 
often unduly pictorial. Copiousness runs into re- 
dundancy; antithesis, into mechanism; prose into 
poetry and we are often at a loss to separate the 
writer from the mere artist. That all true style is 
based on thought and governed -by it, and is worthless 
as a theory in and for itself, Macaulay seemed to have 
ignored. The great thing was the form. Even his- 
torical facts themselves were made to yield to this 
ruling passion for artistic presentation. He was 



410 ENGLISH PROSE. 

deterrained as in Bacon and other essays to be read- 
able whether he was reliable or not. So dominant 
is this theory that it finally leads to moral perver- 
sion. No one thoroughly conversant with Macanlay's 
method can fail to note this servitude to the aesthetic 
theory of style. Words for words' sake — Structure 
for structure's sake. — An epigram at all hazards. 
Art as mere art, — this is the ideal. Style, he would 
tell us, is the art of verbal execution. All this, it 
will be noted, is strictly uninielleckial in the sphere of 
discourse, and here the method must be sharply con- 
demned. Nothing could be more foreign to the true 
theory of style, as the expression of thought^ than this 
unsubstantial theory, and it has done untold evil. 
Mention has been made of the author's popularity in 
his own and subsequent times and of the large num- 
ber of those who are pleased to shape their literary 
methods on his. This is all true. It is not to be 
forgotten, however, that on a different theory of 
style, he would have had a far more excellent con- 
stituency and would have been a far greater aid to 
the ambitious writer. Few things are more unfortu- 
nate in a literary point of view than that this writer's 
theory of style which dissevers idea from, form has 
received such sanction from such high authority. 
Macaulay has great merits as a writer. These have 
been stated. He filled a most important place and 
did a worthy work but it is ever to be urged that his 
view of st^de was, after all, the lower and not the 
higher one, based on taste rather than intellect and 
requiring for its illustration nothing of the great 
qualities of mind. It was fortunate that he was not 
writing in the days of Bacon, when English was in 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MACAULAY. 411 

shaping for permanent use and, especially fortunate 
that even as lie wrote such men as De Quincey were 
also writing' and strenuously insisting that the first 
thing in literary style is the mental life beneath it. 

(bj His Cast of mind as an author was cestlietic 
rather than logical. 

The more closely we examine the inner nature of 
the author's mind, the more clearly it will appear 
that Macaulay, as a writer, or a man, cannot be 
ranked among the intellectual powers of England, as 
Hooker, Bacon, Milton and Burke can be. He had 
little of that intellectual grasp and reach which 
marked such men. He is inferior here even to Addi- 
son and far inferior to the strong-minded Johnson. 

There are many facts in Macaulay's literary life 
indicative of this. 

As to the particular Idnd of reading to which he 
was most addicted, we know that it was fiction and 
poetry and the elegant literature of Europe, rather 
than that order of reading to which Bacon refers as 
he says "Studies serve for ability." His contempt of 
all forms of truth that might be called philosophical 
or abstract, is well known. He spoke in more than 
oflTensive terms of the sages of Greece and simply 
pitied the man who could seem to find in their pages 
any kind of profit or pleasure. 

His essay on Bacon is an indignant protest 
against the utility of all higher study and ere he is 
done he denounces all the philosophers as worse than 
useless. He speaks of metaphysics as Hamilton does 
of mathematics and with as little sense. Macaulay's 
criticisms here were harmless in that they wei'e based 
on prejudice and total ignorance. 



412 ENGLISH PROSE. 

His order of mind was not sufficient!}^ speculative 
lo lead him to inquire into the philosophy of any 
theory. He preferred history, and even there, the 
romantic phase of it. He had no idea of the philo- 
sophy of history. Few things are more notable in 
Macaulay's best prose than the absence of generaliza- 
tion. He knew little of logic and cared less for it. 
The idea of pursuing an argument dispassionately 
through the gradation of proof to the end rarely en- 
tered his mind. He preferred the euthymeme to the 
full syllogism and often concealed therein his specious 
reasoning. He discussed men and measures but not 
germinal principles. He followed processes and 
methods regardless of the laws on which they are 
based. The History of England, in so far as method 
is concerned, is narrative and descriptive. As Pope 
would express it — " it never deviates " into the phil- 
osopliical. Causes and effects stand by themselves. 
So, in tlie historical essays as in those that are 
controversial, there is the same lack of breadth of 
brow while as a critic he is hereby m^ade an unsafe 
leader. All this is in the line of intellectual weak- 
ness, and as we read we long for the Baconian order 
of style. 

In fine, Macaulay was an accomplished literary 
designer. His originality was confined to ways and 
means. He combined the novelist, poet, journalist 
and general prose writer in one personality. As a 
union of forms this has value and marks some inven- 
tive power. Had he added, however, some qualities 
eminently intellectual, his influence would have been 
more than doubled. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— MACAULAY, 413 



(2.) Want of Ethical Earnestness and Aim. 

It cannot be denied that the prose of Macaulay is, 
to a good degree, emotive and animated. The criti- 
cism which questions this is astray from fact. The 
point is, as to the source and quality of this feeHng. 
Here, we must answer that it is purely literary rather 
than moral. It is taste and taste only that controls. 
The impassioned element is not born out of the inner 
recesses of the soul as the home of the ethical in- 
stincts. Biographers tell us of the weakness of his 
devotion to the truth; of his lack of the "stronger 
passion " and of the comparative looseness of his 
view of life. Those who have read Macaulay for 
years and not discovered this have been desultory 
readers. Such will be surprised to note throughout 
an almost studied evasion of what Wordsworth calls 
" higli-thinking "— ^an indifferent acceptance of the 
world as it is without any special anxious concern as 
to its probable future. 

We read Macaulay 's prose for certain ends and we 
secure them — narrative and descriptive skill, correct- 
ness of structure, copiousness of diction and general 
artistic excellence. If we look for the presence of a 
governing moral purpose as a writer, we fail to find 
it. What we may call the literary conscience as it 
existed in Milton and Addison is an undeveloped 
faculty. He writes on Byron and Bunyan with equal 
ease and is satisfied with the result quite apart from 
any searclung analysis of character. His indignation 
at Hastings is political m.ore than moral. His refer- 
ences to Eoman Catholicism and to the English 



414 ENGLISH PROSE, 

Reformation are alike in verbal taste while he 
utterly fails in the discussion of stach a subject as 
Milton or Hampden or the great Puritan order to 
grasp the sublime moral issues at stake in those 
times or the heroic character of the men behind 
them. Macaulay was moral in character and in 
literar}^ style. Pie never offended in this regard as 
Swift and Smollett have done. His pages are as 
clean as those of any English author. He is open 
to criticism, however, in that this ethical quality 
finds no pervasive or definite expression in his prose. 
At this point it is negative and uii satisfactory. As 
Morison phrases, he has nothing for us " when our 
light is low." No prominent writer of English Prose 
has been so free from any offense against moral taste 
and yet so devoid of a decided moral impulse and 
purpose. The reader is scarcely the better or the 
worse, ethically, from the perusal of his papers. He 
leaves us on moral questions just where he found us. 
He does not openly and enthusiastically defend any 
great religious principle for the sake of the principle 
itself or denounce any great evil because it is an evil. 
Such matters he delegates to those whose ofiicial 
business makes it their duty. His work is literary 
and that only. His prose gives no evidence of that 
Miltonic spirit which led the great Puritan to do all 
his literary work with an ethical aim as " ever in his 
great Task-Master's eye." 

Present and Prospective Rank of his Prose Style. 

It is a remark common among English critics of 
the present day, that Macaulay's influence in the 



. REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. — MACAULAY, 415 

world of prose letters is on the wane and will, in tlie 
near future, quite disappear. It is argued that his 
fame hitherto has been out of all proportion to his 
merits and that a more intelligent estimate of lit- 
erary prose will assign him to his proper place of 
inferiority. 

Such views as these are current enough to demand 
attention. Extreme as they are in the form of their 
statement, there is an element of sober truth in them 
as in similar views relative to the probable future of 
Dickens and Eliot in prose fiction. 

We have called attention to the main merits of 
his style. As far as they go, they are merits on the 
basis of which much of ^Macaulay's past and present 
renown is built. More than this, some of them are 
such fundamental qualities of style and withal so 
comparatively rare, that the presence of them must 
insure a good degree of literary prominence. No 
style, for example, can exhibit narrative and descrip- 
tive excellence as Macanlay's does and be said to be 
inferior or doomed to speedy disappearance. His 
prose as it reads to-day is representative English Prose, 
thongh not necessarily in all respects a model form. 
It has enough excellences to give it commanding 
place and to insure it against extinction. 

On the other hand, the two cardinal defects to 
which we have alluded are so serious in their nature 
as to make the exact place of the author's prose in 
English Letters an open question. Even as an ex- 
pression of true literary art, its want of intellectual 
depth would preclude its occupying the first rank as 
does that of De Quincey, while the absence of the 
ethical element in spirit and purpose would rank it 



416 ENGLISH PROSE, 

below the prose of Addison. The best that can be 
said for it is that by reason of its manifest defects it 
cannot be placed first, and b}^ reason of its manifest 
merits it must be placed among those specimens of 
English wliich we call representative or leading. 

He was in every sense what the French mean by 
the — litterateur — a man of letters for letters' sake — 
a lover of literary art. As such, he will always be 
read ^nd especially by those in early manhood and 
womanhood. Probably no English writer is to-day 
so influential in molding the prose style of academic 
students as is Macaulay. His prose lies so on the 
border land between prose and verse as to escape the 
dullness of the one and the meaningless fancy of the 
other. It is sufficiently solid and serious while not 
prosaic and sufficiently attractive and figurative 
while not romantic. 

Such an order of poetic prose will command large 
numbers of readers and shape their style. The read- 
able will be read despite all theory and defect. This 
being so, it is well that the author's prose is as good 
as it is. With all its faults it has high merit. It is 
clear, copious, facile and finished. It has delighted 
thousands of readers and fascinated not a few, and 
while devoid of Baconian strength is marked by some 
of the best qualities of standard English style. 

References and Authorities. 

Morison's Macaulay (Eng. Men of Let.). Minto*s 
Manual of Eng. Prose. Life and Letters (Trevelyan). 
Essays of Bayne and Whipple. 



CHAPTER X. 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF THOIMAS DE QUINCEY. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born in Manchester, Aug. 15th, 1785. In the gram- 
mar-school at Bath. In London, poor and unknown. 
At Oxford, 1803-8. Thence, to the English Lakes at 
Grasmere. Went to Scotland (Lassuade) 1843. Died 
in Edinburgh, Dec. 8th, 1859. 

The Miscellaneous Character of his Prose Works. 

Prof. Masson in his admirable life of De Quincey 
notes the fact that his literary work was mainly 
periodical ; that his books were projected rather than 
completed and that " as Shakespeare may be described 
as the author of about thirty-seven plays, so may De 
Quincey be said to be the author of about one hun- 
dred and fifty magazine articles." 

It is this diversity or copiousness of our author's 
prose that first impresses the careful reader and in- 
vites examination. 

The special classification which Prof Masson gives 
is worthy of note and may be said to embrace all the 
products of the author's pen. 



418 ENGLISH PROSE. 

1. — Descriptive, Biographical and Historical. 
II. — Speculative, Didactic and Critical. 
III. — Imaginative Writings and Prose Poetry. 

This division is founded on one proposed by De 
Quincey himself. He suggested that a portion of his 
essays was designed to deal with fact and incident 
for the special purpose of amusing; a portion, to 
present the purely intellectual view of things, and 
another portion still, to reach and affect the feelings. 
He adopted, in fine, the old triple division of the 
human l^iculties into — Intellect, Feeling, Will and 
Taste, and addressed himself in turn to these respec- 
tive forms. 

This periodical character of his writings carries 
the reader back to Augustan days. We are reminded 
of Addison and Steele; of De Foe and Swift and of 
the later Johnsonian school. The similarity, how- 
ev^er, is simply one of external form. Miscellaneous 
Prose meant with De Quincey something quite differ- 
ent from what it meant with the earlier authors. It 
was distinct in subject matter, method and general 
style and, as to rank, marks a higher order of prose. 
It has some points in common with the style of 
Macaulay, whose death, in the same year as that of 
De Quincey, marks their lives as covering substanti- 
ally the same literary period. Even here, however, Ma- 
oaulay was not the equal of his gifted contemporary. 

There is scarcely a topic within the range of the 
current literature of the time which this voluminous 
essayist did not present. It is known from his bio- 
graphy what a student and reader he was. Whether 
in London or in Edinburgh or at the Lakes, he was 



REPRESENTATIVE IVRITERS -DE QCJNCEY, 419 

diligently at work in enlarging the bounds of his 
knowledge. Southey speaks of him as " better in- 
formed than ahnost any person lie had ever met at 
his age." History, Travels, Biography, Fiction, Poli- 
tics, Metaphysics, Tlieology and Poetry, all received 
their fall share of attention. While at Oxford, he is 
said to have been noted for his quiet and studious 
habits, and even at this early period was looked upon 
by the heads of the university as a marvel in the 
line of general information. To all this knowledge 
of books he added not a little through the medium 
of travel and keen-eyed observation. 

This miscellaneous character of De Quincey's prose 
gave natural origin both to merits and blemishes of 
style. W^e note as to 

IVlERfTS OF H5S STYLE. 

(1.) Variety and Flexibility of Style. 

This very versatility of theme already suggested 
would call for a corresponding versatility of method 
and treatment. Rhetorical sameness would seem to 
be impossible here. The biographical gives frequent 
place to the descriptive, and the impassioned, to the 
didactic, wiiile the prose itself is often so imaginative 
as to border on the poetic. It" one is somewhat 
wearied in the perusal of his paper on — The Essence 
of the Pagan Oracles, he may easily turn to the 
Autobiographic Sketches, or to the Confessions, for 
relief Flis Theory of Greek Tragedy may give place 
to — Murder as One of the Fine Arts — and to his 
paper on, The English Mail Coach. In fact, there is 



420 ENGLISH PROSE. 

here a full-spread literary feast. The opportunity 
for choice is unlimited. It is the European Plan of 
diet applied to English Letters. One may call for 
what he most prefers and it is forthcoming. Such a 
style, whatever it has or has not, cannot be accused 
of insipidity or dullness. There is the utter absence 
of uniformity or of any one method so unyielding as 
to defy change. Even that stifihess of movement and 
apparent mechanism seen at times in Addison is 
absent here. The Johnsonian heaviness of tread is 
not audible. There is the lighter movement of Swift 
and Lamb and a flexibility of method not possessed 
as fully by any literary predecessor. It is extremely 
easy, however, for such versatility to overreach itself 
and become superficial. 

(2.) Its English Element. 

Devoted as he was to the speculations of the Ger- 
mans, he preferred the writings of native authors to 
all others, and at Oxford is found carefully system- 
atizing his studies in this direction. He may be said 
to be the first prominent English writer who even 
made the attempt to reduce the study of English 
Letters to a philosopldcal basis. The work partially 
begun by Dryden. Johnson and Charles Lamb, he 
carried on to satisfactory limits in common with 
Coleridge and Southey, so that on the basis of it we 
have now the philosophic method as the most prom- 
inent one in such a line of study. The historical 
method is subordinate. The literature of Knowledge 
is secondary to that of Power. 

Referring to his early acquaintance with the most 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUINCE Y. 421 

prominent authors of" all times and his consequent 
mental resources, he remarks " that any vanity con- 
nected with power so rarely attained, was in him 
absolutely swallowed up in the tremendous hold 
taken of his entire sensibilities by his own English 
Literature." In giving an account of his father's 
library, he says — " One thing was valuable — all the 
books were English." Nor was this a blind devotion 
to native authors at the expense of a knowledge of 
ail others. As already seen, De Quincey was thor- 
oughly versed in the best that had been written and 
said, and thus fulfilled Matthew Arnold's ideal of the 
cultured man. Many of his best papers are on the 
classical and continental authors and on questions 
quite foreign to anything British. His position was 
simply one of intelligent preference for home product 
in literature. lie ingenuously believed that no an- 
cient or modern nation had so worthy a list of authors 
as England had and was glad to have his judgment 
and affections so happily combined. It always 
grieved him to see the tendency on the part of so 
many of his countrymen to decry English authorship 
in favor of anything foreign. It was under this feel- 
ing that he breaks out m Biblical phrase — ''Are Abana 
and Phai-par, rivers of Damascus, better than all the 
waters of Israel?" As early as at fifteen years of 
age, he is familiar with the leading English poets, 
while in his more mature years, his affection for 
Wordsworth and his school rose to the intensity of 
passionate devotion. 

When a student at Oxford, he is pained at the de- 
ficiency of the Oxonians in the literature of their 
vernacular. " It is," he says, " a pitiable spectacle 



422 ENGLISH PROSE. 

to any man of sense and feeling who happens to be 
familiar with the treasures of his own literature, and 
a spectacle which alternately moves scorn and sorrow, 
to see young people spending their time upon writers 
most unfit to unloose the shoe-latchets of many 
among their own early authors. Surely it is time 
that these follies were at an end; that our practice 
was made to square a little better with our profes- 
sion and that our pleasures were sincerely drawn from 
those sources in which we pretend that they lie." In 
writing his varied papers on English Letters and 
Men of Letters, it is not strange to find a kind of 
eulogium and enthusiasm far too rare among our 
literary critics. He speaks of The Canterbury Tales 
as *'a work that has not been rivaled and probably 
will not be, on our planet." Spenser, Beaumont, 
Fletcher, Pope, Dry den, A.ddison and Swift, in turn 
receive encomiums while he seems to fail in his at- 
tempt properly to exalt the names of Milton and 
Shakespeare. After nobly defending Milton against 
the charge of pedantry and adherence to pagan forms, 
he sums up his view in the words, — " Milton is not an 
author among authors, but a power among powers. 
The Paradise Lost is not a poem among poems, 
but a central force among forces." 

Li the presence of Shakespeare he seems con- 
founded as before "the most august among created 
intellects," and as he looks with ever increasing 
wonder, remarks — ^" Reader, nothing greater can be 
imagined." In fact, he was at heart a genuine son 
of the soil. He prefers Chaucer to Boccaccio; Spenser 
to Tasso; Shakespeare to Goethe; the essays of Ad- 
dison to those of Martineau; the critical opinions of 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUIiVCEY. 423 

Dryden to those of Boileau, and the Luke Lyrists to 
Schiller at his best. 

All this makes De Qiiiricey's style characteristically 
English. He escaped the extreme in each direction. 
While acknowledg'ing all that was worthy of imita-. 
tion in foreign tongues, he never lowered his own 
language from the place of honor. His diction is 
largely native. His structure and general method 
are native. The object of his writing was largely to 
exalt that which was home born, while no careful 
student of his pages can fail to feel the English spirit 
and impulse which beneath all that is external 
controls the tliought and inner life of the author. 

(3.) Its Intellectual Character. 

At this point, the style of De Quincey is sharply 
contrasted with that of Macaulay and the contrast 
is in the former's favor. We are dealing now .with 
an author whose words are well weighed, whose 
object is impressive rather than expressive and who 
believed that men are to be reached by rational 
methods. 

" For my own part," he says " I may affirm that my 
life has been on the whole, the life of a philosopher; 
from my birth I was made an intellectual creature; 
and intellectual in the highest sense my pursuits and 
pleasure have been." Elsewhere in his writings he 
seems to use this term — ■intellectual — with similar 
emphasis. His use of it would seem to indicate his 
devoted fondness for the pursuit of truth. He has 
been well styled a — polyhistor. 

His desire for knowledge was insatiable and he was 



4'M ENGLISH PROSE. 

never happier than when opening' up some new mine 
of information. Mere knowledge however, is not all 
that this word includes with him. It designates an 
order of mind and stjde that is substantial rather thaii 
superficial. It intimates the presence of disciplined 
faculties and the presence of thought. One is struck 
in this respect with the high-class character of the 
topics discussed in the miscellaneous papers of the 
author. As a rule, they have to do with the most 
weighty problems of human life. Outside of those 
examples that are purely humorous and so designed, 
tlie themes are serious and substantial. As Masson 
has well phrased it, '' It was De Quincey's laudable 
habit to put brain into all his articles." In this par- 
ticular, his periodicals are far superior to those of 
Augustan days. Steele and Addison were obliged, 
in deference to what Mr. Courthope calls " the social 
style" to choose an order of subject and Inie of dis- 
cussion somewhat lighter than was now appropriate. 
Even the sober-minded Johnson is not as intellectual 
in his themes as is De Quincey. 

It will be of profit here, to note some of the forms 
in which this special characteristic of the author's 
st^de, as mental, manifested itself in his literary work. 

(a) Analytic Skill and P]iilosoj)Tiic Discussion. 

The author makes a formal claim to the posses- 
sion of this feature of mind and style and has done a 
service to English Prose in this respect that is of 
high value. He thoroughly endorses what may be 
termed — method in writing, as distinct from that loose 
manner of expression ' so common in our literature 
and far too frequent even in standard authors. He 
saw no great danger in the divisions and subdivis- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. — DE QUIiVCEV. 425 

ions of a theme, If indeed, they were natural and 
moderate. lie would as much condemn the ignoring 
of them as he would that extreme use of them pre- 
valent among the divines of the seventeenth century. 
His mind was of the logical order and when he wrote, 
he wrote on some well defined plan and purpose. 
He condemns Hazlitt because he is " disconUnuous." 
He rebukes Lamb for the same literary offense. " No 
man," he says, " can be eloquent whose thoughts are 
abrupt, insulated and capricious." He is opposed to 
what Coleridge caljs " the non-sequacious " style. 
He advocates a style in which the regular progression 
of the ideas is ever visible; in which the relation of 
cause and effect, process and product is seen through- 
out. It IS to be conceded, here, that De Quincey 
indulges too freely, as Swift and Bacon did. in digres- 
sions from the main issue and becomes thereby his 
own judge. His essay on — Hamilton, is an illustra- 
tion in point. After a half-dozen pages of irrelevant 
matter, he informs the reader that he is about to 
begin. After a dozen pages more of matter still less 
relevant, he coolly states that he will ignore all that 
has been given and begin anew. He begins anew 
and^again deviates. Had De Quincey penned this 
essay in Pope's time, he would have been one of the 
heroes of the Dunciad. This digressiveness, however, 
is quite exceptional, and even as it does exist is fully 
justified hj some critics as a relief from the strict 
regularity of the style. In the main, he is clear 
acute and orderly. He had a deep insight into char- 
acter and topic, which he calls "an inner eye and 
power of intuition for the unseen." He had that men- 
tal acumen which found such fitting exercise in the 



426 ENGLISH PROSE. 

study of men. Some of his biographical papers finely 
illustrate this analysis of character. Those on Plato, 
Herodotus, Kant, Shakespeare and Pope are in point. 
He detects at once the main features of the subject 
and presents them in their true distinctness. A no- 
table example of this is his paper on — The True Re- 
lations of the Bible to Human Science — in which he 
takes occasion to answer objections and advance 
positive argument. He ably insists that the Bible 
is not a manual of science or philosophy and is not to 
be so studied. In discussing De Quincey's analytic 
skill as a proof of the intellectual quality of his style, 
reference is in place to his critical power. He had 
the independence of a true critic and, we may add, 
that wealth of historic and scholarly information on 
which all true criticism rests. Despite all that he 
had read and learned, he insisted on forming and ap- 
plying his own opinions for himself This sometimes 
led him into error, but in the main was a safe guide. 
When of the philosophy of Plato he says — " that it 
moves at all only by its cumbrous superfluity of 
words;" when he speaks of Goethe as designedly 
"using the enigmatical to perplex his readers and 
refers to Burton and Taylor and Browne as the great 
models of English style, we feel that his analysis 
IS defective and his consequent criticism fallacious. 
When he tells us as to the Essenes, that no such 
sect ever existed as reported by Josephus, that Jndas 
Iscariot was a morbid fanatic more than a wilfiill 
traitor, and when in his papers on Cicero and the 
Pagan Oracles, he propounds views altogether his 
own, his independence is at the expense of sound 
judgment. In the line of literary criticism, how- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUINCEY, 427 

ever, De Quincey is a master. "No English writer,'' 
says Massoii, " has left a finer body of disquisition on 
the science and principles of criticism." We speak 
unadvisedly of Matthew Arnold as the — fiither of 
Modern English Literary Criticism. This honor be- 
longs to Dryden and De Quincey. Allusion has been 
made to his early study of English authors on the 
philosophical basis. He began, at once, to analyze 
the style and the man; to note the defects and the 
excellences and the causes of them; to give a rational 
explanation of style on the basis of wide established 
principles of expression. The amateur critics of the 
Augustan Age knew little of this. Even the founders 
of the Edinburgh Review and their respective schools 
were inferior to De Quincey in this analytic method 
of criticism. He reduced what he did to a well de- 
fined science and proceeded according to law. One 
may almost choose at random from his papers to 
illustrate this habit. He gives us in his papers on 
Ehetoric, Style and Language, the exact theory on 
which he advances. He calls no style excellent in 
which the thought is not controlling. He sharply 
protests against the mechanical element in expression 
and contends that all true expression is an organic 
process by which the inner soul of the writer is set 
forth. It is in this connection that he makes his 
favorite distinction between The Literature of Knowl- 
edge and The Literature of Power; between The 
Principia and The Paradise Lost. 

In no one theory is De Quincey 's intellectual char- 
acter seen more fully than in the fact that as a 
writer and a critic of the writings of others he insists 
that style is essentially intellectual — the embodiment 



428 ENGLISH PROSE. 

and expression of thonght, and not a mere external 
adornment or the mere use of words with nothing in 
them or behind them. 

It is for this reason that no body of miscellaneous 
prose can be more safely commended to young men 
as a guide, in that it is based on this cardinal prin- 
ciple of the supremacy of intellect in the art of verbal 
expression. Critics have spoken of the scientific 
element in De Quincey's style. If by this is meant, 
the intellectual as distinct from any other quality, 
the view is tenable. There is an anal}- tical exactness 
of plan and statement, a strict adherence to the 
reality of things so that the literary artist is never 
allowed to supersede the philosopher and teacher of 
truth. Further study will show how beautifully this 
intellectual element is combined throughout with 
that artistic grace and finish by which the thought 
is made attractive. There is a still additional feature 
of this mental element that deserves notice and is, in 
fact, the most important. 

(b) Suggestiveness or Literary Richness. 

This is inventive rather than analytic. It has to 
do with the work of origination as the highest form 
of intellectual action. Something more is meant 
here than that independence of opinion to which 
allusion has been made or that versatility of view 
already mentioned. There is in the sphere of prose, 
that which in poetry would be called creative. It is 
what the metaphysicians call the power of — original 
suggestion. It is here, as nowhere else, that the 
intellectuality of De Quincey's prose style is seen. 
He brings to light and to being that which is his 
own. He follows here the guidance of no master. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUINCE Y. 429 

He adopts the creed of no particular school. Plis 
work is unique and fresh. It is true that he had a 
special attachment to the Lake Poets, and, most 
especially, to Wordsworth. The devotion was, how- 
ever, in no sense slavish, but intelligent and manly. 
There is in his nature as a writer a high degree of 
mental productivity. He was affluent in his resources. 
The fertility of his nature might be compared to the 
rich bottom-lands of some countries or to the luxuri- 
ant vegetation of the tropics. He has that quality 
in prose which Mr. Whipple attributes to Shakespeare 
in poetry — the power of intimating more than is 
fully stated and thus inviting the research of the 
reader. De Quincey cannot be termed a profound 
writer or thinker in the philosophical sense of that 
term, but he is rich in his literary resources and 
always gives the reader more than is actually, re- 
quired. Here, he was the superior of i\lacaulay 
while no writer of the Augustan Age at all com- 
pared with him. He displayed in prose that form 
and measure of mental opulence that is sometimes 
called Eh'zabethan, and which marked the dramatic 
poetry of that age. Within the province of mis- 
cellaneous prose there is nothing equal to it in En- 
glish Letters. He is the head of that expressive or 
expansive prose era which takes its origin at the 
close of the eighteenth century and reaches its full- 
ness in the following century. It is, in fine, nine- 
teenth century English. 

(4.) Impassioned Vigor. 

As to this quality, also, the author makes a special 
claim in the Preface to his Autobiography. He is 



430 ENGLISH PROSE. 

alluding to the subject matter of personal confessions. 
He speaks of the difficulties which beset the path of 
him who is desirous of making such confessions and 
argues that the tone of such composition should 
above all else be impassioned. He shows tlie failure 
of other autobiographers in this particular; indicates 
his faith in his own ability in this direction and 
points the reader for an illustration to — The Opium 
Eater, and — Suspiria de Profundis. As far as these 
two specified works are concerned all would be will- 
ing to justify the author's claim to emotive writing. 
The application of the principle may be extended, 
however, and it will be seen upon a true interpreta- 
tion that his style throughout is characterized by 
this feature. We might naturally expect to find it, 
from what we know of the man and his peculiar 
nature, just as we expect to find it in Lamb, Gold- 
smith or Milton. 

In many of its manifestations it is but a portraiture 
of his unfortunate life. This quality, in De Quincey's 
prose, takes the two distinct forms of pathos and 
'passion. The one is subdued and tender. The other 
is more positive and vigorous. The one takes its 
character from the inner experience of the man while 
the other is more modified by external influence. 

As to the element of true pafJ/cs, it is everywhere 
apparent. 

In his graphic account of the— Three Memorable 
Murders, with their revolting incidents; in his minute 
description of that wealth of affection which he and 
his sister mutually dispensed and received; in the 
specific narrative of the distressing circumstances 
attending the loss of their parents by some children 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUINCE Y. 431 

on the English hills in the depth of winter; in tlie 
personal reminiscences he gives us of his visits to 
Greta Hall and Rydal Mount; in his Vision of Sadden 
Death and his account of the deatli of Wordsvv'orth's 
daughter and, most noteworthy of all, in his affecting 
allusions to the death of his own sister — in all these 
and similar writings there is a genuine pathos that 
marks the style as impassioned. There is a sympa- 
thetic tenderness about them that indicates the heart 
of the man as keenly sensitive to the deepest feelings 
of human nature. " Not to be sympathetic," he says, 
"is not to understand," and, as we know, he prefers 
the literature of power to that of knowledge, in that 
the former moves the soul in addition to informing 
the mind. 

This subdued pathos in De Quincey is closely con- 
nected with a tendency in his nature, to the grave 
and mysterious. His owm experience of the ills of 
life and his observation of the ills of others made it 
easy for him to incline to the plaintive and pathetic. 
This often went to the extreme of moroseness and a 
morbid view of character and human history. When 
avoiding this extreme, however, it lent a mellow soft- 
ness to his nature and suffused it with a touching 
regard for the welfare of his fellows. Their appar- 
ently unearned sufferings elicited his deepest sym- 
pathy and he did not care to suppress it. His fond- 
ness for the occult and mysterious heightened this 
temper of mind. He had what Masson calls — "the 
metaphysical mood." He was ever moralizing on men 
and things; on passing events and personal destiny. 
He indulged in those secret reveries which so often 
mark the lives of students and authors. His physical 



4:32 ENGLISH PROSE, 

constitution inclined him to it and all his proclivities 
were in that direction. It seemed at times as in the 
case of Wordsworth, to take the form of superstitions 
wonder. He had that childlike awe and feeling of 
the marvelous which so prevailed among the Lake 
Poets and to which the solitude of the mountains 
may be said to minister. 

All this was in the line of the emotive. It touched 
and swayed tlie springs of feeling within. There was 
just enough of the religious element in it to soften and 
deepen it and make it more attractive. De Quincey's 
style is permeated by this impassioned element on 
the side of pathos. 

So, also, as to its more outspoken expression in 
passion and strong mental emotion. 

Many of the best passages of his prose are strictly 
oratorical, so distinctive is the element of feeling. 
They read as if taken from Burke or Chatham. We 
will find such examples in his Autobiography, in his 
recital of the sufferings of neglected children ; in his 
high eulogium on British womanhood; in his account 
of the character and age of Cicero; in his captivating 
narrative of the heroism of Joan of Arc; in his graphic 
account of the early Christian martyrdoms, and his 
description of Greece in the Golden Age of Pericles. 
At times, these expressions take the form of indig- 
nant invective. In speaking of Wordsworth's forced 
acquaintance with Monsieur Simond whose mer- 
cenary views were so out of keeping with the high 
theories of the Lake Poet, he says — "They met and 
saw and interdespised.'" His righteous soul was stirred 
to its depths by the manner in which this "unpoetic 
Frenchman failed to grasp the transcendent excel- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUINCE Y. 433 

lence of poetry as compared with all material 
good. 

It is this impassioned element that explains much 
of the potency of De Quincey's style and keeps it 
fresh among us. It gives it that quality of force 
without which mere intelligibility is of little worth. 
It most aptly combines with that intellectual element 
of which we have spoken and forms a rare example 
of prose. Even in his philosophical and ethical 
papers this feature is present while in those which 
have specially to do with the historical personages 
and great public events it is conspicuous throughout. 

(5.) Humor and Satire. 

This element in De Quincey might be called — 
Satirical Humor. 

An exquisite example of it is given in his paper on 
— " Murder as one of the Fine arts." Beginning with 
the history of murder in the act of Cain, he finds in 
the Age of Pericles " no murder of the slightest merit." 
In Rome, he finds nothing worthy of distinction and 
then passes over through the Middle Ages to the 
England of the seventeenth century. He gives a 
graphic description of proceedings at the sumptuous 
dinners of the " Thugs" and of the famous character — 
Toad-in-the-hole. How natural the explanation of 
the absence of the reporter who had been murdered 
by one of the party present and about whom inquiry 
is made. Non est inventus. 

His advice to one inclined to distinguish himself 
in manslaughter is — Beware ! " If once a man in- 
dulge in murder, he comes very soon to think little 



434 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of robbing; from robbing he comes to drinking and 
Sabbath breaking, and from that to incivility and pro- 
crastination. Many a man has dated his ruin from 
some murder or other that perbaps lie thought little of 
at the time: Prirxipiis ohsta.'' The low value set on 
human life and the low estimate of the criminality of 
taking it that prevailed at that time in London could 
have been rebuked and modified in no better way 
than in this of ironical pleasantry. The popular con- 
science was too dull to receive direct moral teaching 
and it must be reached by indirect methods. The 
satire, however, must be couched in humor. 

In his paper on — Sortilege and Astrology — there 
is a fine specimen of English Humor, as, also, in 
his serio-comic description of an " English Mail 
Coach." 

What a rich vein of merriment is there in " Dinner, 
real and reputed," as, also, in the author's ingenious 
criticism of Lord Monboddo's theory as to the descent 
of man from the ape. Apart from papers, however, 
that are specifically of this order, this double element 
runs through the style. In some of the personal 
sketches as in — The Confessions, it is mingled with 
sadness as it is in Lamb and Burns, while, in the 
main, it takes the form of a hearty, wholesome 
pleasantry. Even when satirical, it is full of that 
true humanity which according to Thackeray is 
essential to its existence. As a feature of style, it 
lends attractiveness and pointedness and saves the 
prose from what might otherwise be conducive to 
heaviness. Part of the readableness of De Quincey's 
prose comes from the pith of its irony and the pleasure 
of its humor. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS -DE QUINCE Y. 4:35 

(6.) Pictorial and Artistic Power. 

All that l)elongs to the sphere of the descriptive, 
imaginative or poetic is in place here, as making up 
the element of beauty in discourse and as a necessary 
complement to the mental and emotive elements 
hitherto suo-o-ested. 

In the line of general descriptive skill, we note in 
the author the faculty of poetic discernment, the de- 
tection of those hidden analogies that escape most 
men and through the medium of which the highest 
artistic effiots may be secured, fie possessed what 
he himself in the "Opium E iter" calls — -"the higher 
faculty of an electric aptitude for seizing analogies." 
Much of that which critics have attributed to the 
wide range of reading and grasp of memory is rather 
due to this "higher faculty" of mental insight — "the 
logical ir\stiiict for feeling in a moment the secret 
parallelism"^ that conne^jted things apparently re- 
mote." It is thus natural to find critics as a 
class alluding to De Quincey as a model of exact com- 
parison and descriptive sketching. This skill is very 
noticeable in his portrayal of natural scenery. To 
those who have lived among well known scenes, he 
discloses beauties hitherto unnoticed. So, as to men 
and movements. Though Southey and Wordsworth 
may have been known to us for years, De Quincey 
interprets them quite anew. 

Apart from this special descriptive excellence, the 
prose is marked throughout by poetic taste and finish. 
There is just enough distinct use of figurative lan- 
guage to lend variety and general vividness to the 
style and, yet, not enough to controvert his own the- 



436 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ory as to the superiority of thought to form. In the 
matter of melody and rhythm, as apart of good prose 
structure, the author reaches definite and high re- 
sults. Whether we refer to euphony as pertaining to 
the mere pleasure of sounds in themselves or as related 
to the sense beneath them, there is abundant evidence 
of skill. His prose possesses what Beethoven calls 
" pronounciability " and what Masson calls " musical 
beauty." Vowels, consonants and liquids are happily 
adjusted while he never so magnifies this poetic ele- 
ment as to pass the limits of substantial prose or 
make it difficult as to where to classify his writings. 
In this respect, also, he is Macaulay's superior as he is 
that of such an author as Jeremy Taylor. Though De 
Quincey was convinced that prose was his forte and 
Avisely worked in it, he had not a little of that poetic 
genius which is found in all great prose writers and 
is intensified as in his case so fully, by an intimate 
acquaintance with the best specimens of poetry. He 
had what lies below all high expression in prose or. 
poetry — the instinct of literary form ; what Matthew 
Arnold would call — the sense of beauty. Intellectual 
as his style was, it was conspicuously artistic, and in 
this he has done the unspeakable service of showing 
that the best work in prose literature is neither the 
purely didactic nor the purely imaginative, but is 
seen in the judicious combination of these elements 
in what may be termed — the expression of thought 
in aesthetic form. The phrase — literary art — if truly 
interpreted, means an art based on mental laws and 
proceeding by intellectual methods and, yet, expres- 
sive of all that belongs to good taste and finish of 
form. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUhVCEY, 437 

In De Q aiiicey, this pictorial and artistic quality 
rises, at times, to magiiiacence. There is the ele- 
meiit of literary splendor, a kind of majestic move- 
ment corresponding to the element of snbhmity in 
poetry. The style is stately without being pompous 
or inflated. There is something of that lofty bearing 
80 manifest in Hooker and Milton, but conducted 
with more finish and ease. There is a sustained 
elegance of form and carriage that indicates high 
literary breeding and invites respect. 

What an absence there is in De Qaincey of the 
coarse and base ! How completely does he avoid 
the extremes of buffoonery and moral impropriety. 
There is nothing of Jonathan Swift's lower tastes 
here, but all is clean and clear. This was with De 
Quincey more a matter of taste than conscience. 
His morality was mainly literary. His ethics were 
shaped by his esthetics. His sense of artistic pro- 
priety as an author would have made it impossible 
for him to have descended to the low levels of Dryden 
and the Restoration school. He had a religious re- 
gard for what was in good taste, and his prose is, 
thereby, the purer and better. 

HIS ALLEGED DEFECTS OF STYLE. 

(1.) The Want of Full Discussion of Ideas. 

Carlyle speaks of his "wire-drawn" papers. He 
has in mind his apparent want of elaboration, of 
greater thoroughness of treatment. Hence, it is 
noticeable that De Quincey rarely ventured beyond 
the magazine article into the larger and wider sphere 



438 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of prose expression. It seemed to be as difficult for 
him to address himself to the sustained production 
of literary work in book form as for Burns or Words- 
worth to compose an epic. Miscellaneous writing, is 
after all, a subordinate form. Its discursive character 
must rank it below those forms which imply and re- 
quire protracted mental effort definitely applied to 
one topic. The historical essay is not history proper 
nor is the descriptive essay a work in prose fiction. 
A biographical or a critical paper is not biography or 
criticism proper. De Quincey, it is true, experimented 
in extended book production, as in his — Logic of Po- 
litical Economy. In this he sought to combine logic 
and social science into one unique system. He ridi- 
culed all existing attempts save one in this direction, 
and on the basis of the learned Ricardo, he aimed to 
present an acceptable treatise. He called it — " Pro- 
legomena ro all Future Systems of Pohtical Economy." 
With this among other projects in mind, an able critic 
in the Quarterly Review remarks with irony — " He 
never finished anything except his sentences." Here 
and there throughout his writings are intimations of 
unfinished plans. There is one of these that seems 
to be of special note — a work he tells us, " to which 
he devoted the labor of his life — a memorial to his 
children, of hopes defeated and of the grief and ruin 
of the architect." There is the promise of a work 
nothing less than Baconian in the title he assigns 
toit:"De Emendatione Humani Intellectus." This 
great undertaking was never fulfilled while his vol- 
ume of prose fiction entitled — Klosterheim — is not at 
present accessible in England. His work as thus 
miscellaneous and irregular rather than continuous, 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUINCE Y. 439 

opened the great literary temptation to narrowness 
of view and undue brevity of description. 

Tliougli he understood the utility of full discussion 
and gave enougli examples of it to show that he 
could apply it, such a method was exceptional and 
was not fully demanded by the periodic style. That 
De Qaincey did not carry this principle further, as 
many of his less able predecessors did, is not alto- 
gether a myster3\ We must believe that it was mainly 
due to the debilitating effect of opium, by which he 
tells us, he had virtually lost the power over his own 
will and faculties. It is one of the marvels of men- 
tal philosophy that under this frequent paralysis of 
the v^ill, he did anything of worth in Eiigiisli Prose 
and, moreover, unquestionable that apart from this 
deadly drug, he would have been second to none in 
what he has finely termed "the literature of power." 
This fault apart, however, most of the main features 
of standard prose will appear as we analyze more 
closely the style of the author. 

As a body of miscellaneous prose, it has no supe- 
rior in English Letters. For wide richness of subject ; 
for fullness of knowledge exhibited and for general 
attractiveness, no such example of English writing 
exists. In making up the estimate of his rank and 
power, critics have erred in comparing him with 
those who have worked in other departments of lit- 
erature for which he had but little ability or taste. 
He is not to be condemned in that he did not write 
such a work as Bacon's Advancement of Learning 
or Hooker's Polity. He is not to be severely com- 
pared with those writers, who, in addition to miscel- 
laneous work have accomplished large results in 



440 ENGLISH PROSE. 

other fields, — with such authors as Carlyle or the 
great historians, noveHsts and philosophers of Eng- 
land, but with others of the periodical order. Among 
such, as we shall see, he stands pre-eminent. The 
most unsparing criticism must concede that in the 
purely miscellaneous sphere no exception can be 
taken to this. Compared with Swift, Addison, eJohn- 
son and Lamb and all the so-called essayists of our 
literature, he has no rival or equal. If the modern 
English student were to be restricted to the perusal 
of one English essayist with reference either to the 
the formation of style or the experience ^f literary 
pleasure, it should be De Quincey. The advice given 
by Dr. Johnson in reference to Addison " that we 
must spend our days and nights with him," is still 
more in place as applied to De Quincey. 

"There are few courses of reading," says Massoni 
" from which a young man of good natural intel- 
ligence would come away more instructed, charmed 
and stimulated or with his mind more stretched" In 
many respects he is the essayist of English Prose. 

(2.) Errors of Diction, Sentence and P/lora! Force. 

As to diction^ the errors here are not enough to 
justify the assertion made by some critics, that it is 
loose, irregular and devoid of correctness. The au- 
thor innocently prided himself on his use of language. 
He made it a special aim to be precise. In one of 
his papers, after detecting the violation of this prin- 
ciple he condemns it and adds, '* We rarely make 
such errors in the use of words." We have already 
spoken of his pure English style — his preference for 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DE QUINCE Y. 441 

tlie native language over the Latin or any other 
foreign tongue. Even where foreign idiom and tech- 
nical phraseology enter, the English spirit is so con- 
trolling as to preserve the composition from pedantry 
or detract from its naturalness. There are authors, 
such as — Walton, Fuller, Bunyan and De Foe, who 
use in their prose a larger percentage of native 
words. Even Swift is his superior here. Still, the 
percentage is so large and the general character so 
home-like that his language cannot be said to mark 
a wide departure from purity. "The strong point in 
his diction," says Minto, "is his acquaintance with 
the language of the thoughts and feelings, with the 
subjective side of the English vocabulary. If "right 
words in right places " is a true definition of style, 
De Quincey might be regarded as a master. As to his 
wealth of diction nothing need be said. 

As to sentences and general structure the author is 
more at fault, but not enough so to warrant the state- 
ment in connection with his paper on Goethe that 
the prose was marked by "awkwardness and stiff- 
ness." There are, iindoubtedl}^, in De Quincey evi- 
dent effects of German Grammar. He had made him- 
self so conversant with German authors as to be 
somewhat affected by their style while, apart from 
this, he had not that natural facility of shaping prose 
structure which belonged to Macaulay and Lamb. 
Specially inclined to the elaborate periodic order of 
sentence, he found himself, at times, so involved 
midway in the structure as to make clearness impos- 
sible. He indulges too freely in the use of inversion 
and parenthesis largely induced by his habit of di- 
gression. As a law, however, his meaning is clear 



442 ENGLISH PROSE, 

and expressed with vigor. As we know, there was 
no subject to which as a question of style he devoted 
more attention than to the formation of the sentence. 
He is ever enforcing the necessity of a plain and em- 
phatic structure, so that even when he errs it is in 
the face of his better judgment. What he called — 
The Mechanology of Style — had primary reference to 
this building of the phrase and paragraph so as to 
produce the best effect. 

As to the positive moral vigor of De Quincey's 
prose, little can be said. "No one could have said 
of De Quincey, at any time of his life," writes Masson, 
" that his strength lay in any predominance of the 
moral element in his nature." 

We have spoken of his style as strikingly intellec- 
tual. It was so because the author was so and 
somewhat at the expense of the ethical. He had 
here the same defect noted in the nature of Macau- 
lay, — the want of that distinctively moral purpose 
which belongs to high literary art. He was a critic 
of style pure and simple rather than of men or char- 
acter. He never raised the question as to the place 
of conscience in authorship. He would, not have 
been able to understand what Trollope writes in his 
Life of Thackeray — "that every work of fiction must 
be morally correct." The more modern theory of the 
separate existence of ethics and letters would have 
been more agreeable. The curse of opium is again 
apparent here in paralyzing the will and motive 
forces in the man. The ethical is eliminated or 
deadened. 

Had De Quincey possessed this quality, no line 
could have measured his literary influence. As it is, 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS— DE QUINCE Y. 443 

he must be viewed apart from it simply as one of the 
Eiiglisli Men of Letters. 

Judged from this standpoint he has, as stated, no 
superior in English prose. A recent English critic 
has not overstated it as he says—/" The exquisite fin- 
nish of his style, with the scholastic vigor of his 
logic form a combination which centuries may never 
reproduce, but which every generation should study 
as one of the marks of English literature." In vol- 
ume and richness of diction, in substantial clearness 
and strength of structure; in all those qualities of 
style that may be termed intellectual and in high 
artistic finish of external form, there is nothing bet- 
ter in our language. Others Jiad excelled him in spe- 
cific features of style but no one up 'to his time had 
so happily unified all the leading qualities. He is 
not without defects and positive faults, but they are 
largely neutralized by the presence of many masterly 
qualities. Representing all that was best in Baconian 
and Addisonian style, he, also, represents those later 
excellences which belong to English Prose as dis- 
tinctively modern and which serve to place it as 
second to none in the list of the prose literatures 
of the world. 

References and Authorities. 

Masson's (Eng. Men of Let.). Minto's Prose Man- 
ual. Hours in a Library (Leslie. Stephen). Illustra- 
tions of Genius (Giles). 



CHAPTER XL 
THE PEOSE STYLE OF CHAELES DICKENS. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born at Landport (Hampshire) Feb., 1812. Studiea 
near Rochester. An Attorney and Student. A Re- 
porter. From 1836, engaged in authorship. Vis- 
ited United States in 1841. Visited United States 
again in 1867. Died in 1870. 

Prose Fiction as a Form. 

In discussing the Representative Forms of English 
Prose in the former part of this treatise, special 
attention has been called to the Descriptive or Pic- 
torial Form. As there remarked, Prose Fiction, as 
a distinct species of prose, falls under this form. It 
is not precisely co-extensive with Descriptive Writings 
but has its main features. All fiction as such, is 
more or less descriptive. It is not true, however, 
that all descriptive prose is necessarily fictitious in 
character. As already suggested, it has a large place 
in ordinary narrative writing and a place larger or 
smaller in every prominent form of English Prose 
Literature. The style of Dickens is essentially that 
of Prose Fiction. There is no writer of our literature 
who in this particular has been more unique and 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DICKENS. 445 

individual. Whatever product of his pen we may be 
pleased to peruse we know, at the outset, just what 
order of style we shall find, — the distinctive style of 
the novelist. From early boyhood to the composition 
of his last work, Dickens was a novelist more than 
anything else, and he could not if he had so desired, 
permanently have succeeded in any other sphere. 
Some of his attempts in biographical editing and 
politico-literary journalism confirm this view. Even 
in the closely related form of historical prose, he was 
not as much of an adept as many of his contem- 
poraries such as — Bulwer, Thackeray, Scott and 
Kingsley. It is quite noticeable that but two of 
his numerous novels — Barnaby Rudge and A Tale of 
Two Cities — may be strictly called historical, while 
liis — Child's History of England — was but partially 
successful. 

As to the oratorical or philosophic forms of prose, 
he scarcely approached them at any point. His mis- 
sion was elsewhere. It was in the region of the ideal 
and the imaginative in their relation to the actual 
life about him. Hence it is clear that an analj^sis of 
Dickens prose is nothing more nor less than a study 
of style as seen in works of fiction. 

It will be seen to have three pictorial elements 
that mark it as a kind of pictorial prose. It will re- 
veal the presence of imagination more than any other 
mental faculty and reveal it on its poetical side more 
than on its historical or philosophic. Even within 
the province of fiction proper, the descriptive novel 
will be seen to take precedence of all others in hie 
works. That combined minuteness and comprehen- 
siveness of style peculiar to the novel as a work of 



446 ENGLISH PROSE. 

literary art will appear. In fine, in the study of 
Dickens' prose, we are, for the time being, on a kind 
of border line between prose and poetry — the real 
and the nnreal. 

The writing is that of prose fiction as Barkers is 
that of oratory, or Addison's that of the Miscellaneous 
Essay. Whatever disadvantage this may have in the 
way of restriction, it has the great advantage of pre- 
cision. We know just where we are. 



His Prose Works. 

These are of one order and are numerous. All 
literary critics have noted the wonderful literary 
activity which Dickens displayed. He was a con- 
scientious and an earnest worker in the field of 
English Prose and in this respect alone has left an in- 
valuable lesson for those who follow him and who may 
be inclined to what is called — elegant literary leisure. 
Ward and Forster, his most recent biographers are 
never weary of alluding to this characteristic and al- 
ways connect it with his great success as a writer and 
with that fertility of production which he exhibited. 
Late in life he wrote — " I am become incapable of 
rest. I am quite confident I should break and die, if 
i spared myself. Much better to die doing." He early 
formed the purpose of doing what he did with all his 
heart. Loveof thoroughnessand system in his workis 
everywhere visible. What he lacked naturally, he 
supplied by the greatest assiduity and even in the 
days of vacation was storing his mind for his needs 
aa a novelist. He saw and noted everything, and 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DICKENS. 447 

when he sat down to the definite work of composition 
was fall of his subject and wrote with ease. 

Such an author must have been voluminous. From 
the time that he penned his — Sketches of Boz, and — 
The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwick Club, on to 
Our Mutual Friend, and the unfinished — Mystery of 
Edwin Drood, he was at it early and late — passion- 
ately devoted to novel writing, carrying out his own 
principle — '* Whatever I have devoted mj'self to, I 
have devoted myself to completely." 

It is scarcely necessary for our purpose to mention 
here all the prose writings of Dickens. At the close 
of Mr. Forster's minute biography, such a list may be 
found. 

As the basis of our criticism may be mentioned the 
following: — 

Sketclies of Boz. 

The Posthumous Papers of The Pickwich Club. 

Oliver Twist. 

Life and Adventures of Nicholas NicJdehy. 

The Old Curiosity Shop. 

Barnahy Budge. 

American Notes for General Circulation. 

The Life, and Adventures of Martin Chuzzleivit 

Dealings loith the Firm of Dornhey and Son. 

The Personal History of David Copperfield. 

Blcidz House. 

Hard Times. 

Little Dorrit. 

A Tale of Two Cities. 

The Uncommercial Traveler, 

Great Expectations. 



448 ENGLISH PROSE, 

Our Mutual Friend. 

The Mystery of Edwin Brood. 

Christmas Stories: — A Christmas Carol in Prose. 
The Chimes. The Cricket on the Hearth. The Battle 
of Life. The Haunted Man. 

In addition to these typical works might be men- 
tioned some of lesser note, such as his — 

Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi. 
The Picnic Papers. 
Pictures from Italy. 
A Child's History of England. 

The Serials: — Household Words. All the Year Bound, 
Master Humphreys Clock. 

Other works of still less importance may be seen 
in the list referred to. 

There is here manifested unwonted literary indus- 
try and productiveness, covering a period of thirty- 
five years, from 1835-70. Even when a boy at school 
and an attorney's clerk, he was writing sketches. It 
is well known that from an early period he was 
connected more or less directly with journalism, 
partly in the interests of his special work as a 
novelist and partly for independent ends in the in- 
tervals of regular duty. 

As far, therefore, as mere amount of authorship is 
concerned Dickens ranks among the first. Though 
less voluminous than De Foe or Bulwer he is far more 
BO than Thackeray or Eliot and has written quite 
enough to entitle him to the place to which modern 
criticism has assigned him. It is quite possible, 



REPRESENTATIVE WRTTERS.—DTCKENS. 449 

indeed, as in the case of De Foe that he has written 
too much for his reputation, while it is not to be for- 
gotten, as suggested, that what he wrote was mainly 
in one direction of literary work. Though he wrote 
far more than Addison or Johnson or Macaulav, he 
was not voluminous as they were in the way of a 
large variety of prose form. Those qualities of stylo 
which arise from frequent change of topic as from 
history to essay or from criticism to descriptive sketch- 
ing are not as prominent in Dickens as in many of 
our English writers. On the other hand, the re- 
striction of his work, spacious as it is, to the one 
department of prose fiction, brings with it certain 
advantages in the line of concentrated effort and 
ever improving methods. Dickens has often been held 
to account by the critics for what he never pretended 
to do as a prose writer. His prose is to be examined 
and judged within the limits of that form which he 
preferred and produced, and that only. Comparing 
him favorably or unfavorably with Scott or Thackeray 
is in order, but not so to insist that he shall be in 
narrative prose what Macaulay was, or in philosophic 
prose what Hooker or Bacon were. 

PROMINENT FEATURES OF HIS PROSE STYLE.— MERITS. 
(1.) Delineative and Dramatic Power, 

In this characteristic we touch upon that which 
many have regarded as the one leading feature of 
the prose before us. It is certainly as conspicuous as 
any and would express as fully as any those peculiar 
features which mark Dickens as a novelist. Among 
the different classes of novels which critics have seen 



450 ENGLISH PROSE. 

fit to enumerate, tlie novel of Life and Manners is a 
proniineut one. It might be called with fairness, the 
Descriptive Novel, and it was the special form in 
which Dickens did his best work and which best 
iihistrates his prose style. Attention has already 
been called to the early development of descriptive 
skill in the life of Dickens, based as it was on that 
keen faculty which he possessed of seeing all that 
transpired about him and of seeing it with reference 
to portraying it in written form. The first substan- 
tial product of his pen — Sketches of 5o2— happily 
sugge.^^ts this primary quality of his style. In the 
best sense of the word, it was sketchy or graphic — a 
clear delineation of men and things. It is in this 
feature of Dickens' style that his imagination as a 
pictorial and constructive faculty is seen to enter. 
He had by natural endowment a lively sense of the 
ideal and fanciful and yet made it a matter of special 
care to cultivate this part of his being. We note 
throughout the record of his life that he regarded it 
as important as any faculty of the human mind and 
congratulated himself that in his own case it had 
received constant culture. It is just here that much 
of the descriptive character of his prose finds its 
origin and maintenance. He enriched and enlarged 
the descriptive faculties of the mind just as the lo- 
gician would expand the logical faculties or the artist 
the special faculty of aesthetic taste. 

It was by this power of actualizing the ideal that 
his characters were, in the main, as real to him as it 
they were before him in living personality. 

We are told that there is much of the dramatic 
cast in Dickens' prose. The criticism is eminently 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—DICKENS, 451 

just and lies directly in the line of his power of 
imagery. 

He tells us that he had "always been an actor." 
When a boy at the Wellington House Academy, he 
not only wrote the tales which were to be recited, 
but was the actual head of the private theatrical per- 
formances there established. His enthusiastic fond- 
ness for the public recitation of his own writings in 
this country, on the continent and at home, is but 
another evidence of the presence of this histrionic 
instinct and skill. 

He loved, as a writer, the work of representation 
and in order to express this tendency of his nature 
still more inWj he often resorted to the platform as a 
reader or to the boards of the stage as an actor. 
Readers of his life will call to mind the part which 
he took as manager and actor in the comedy of — 
Every Man in his Humor — The Light House — The 
Elder Brother, and other plays. 

With Jerrold, Lemon, Collins and Forster, as in- 
timate companions, he went about as the old strolling 
players were wont to do, partly for sheer jollity and 
mainly to give due expression to that particular 
element of his descriptive faculty which may be 
called dramatic. Ward, in speaking of Bleak House, 
romavks — " The idea of making an impressional ob- 
ject like a great Chancery suit the centre round 
which a large and manifold group of characters re- 
volves, seems to savor of a drama rather than of a 
st-nrv." This statement has a much wider application 
than to Bleak House, as in Dombey and Son and 
elsewhere. 

In fact, Dickens' prose in his fiction throughout, 



452 ENGLISH PROSE. 

not only evinces that measure of plot and character 
and catastrophe which marks the novel as a distinct 
form of prose but that measure of these which marks 
the comedy as a dramatic product. To say the least, 
it marks the border line between prose fiction and 
the prose drama. ' 

Much has been said of late, "pro and ccm^ as to 
the power of characterization visible in the prose of 
Dickens. 

Critics who rank him- high at this point speak of — 
" the photographic power of his pen." Others speak 
slightingly of his power here and deny to him any 
genius in this direction. 

It is difficult to see the basis of such extreme de- 
structive criticism at this point. The author is not 
to be compared as to this quality with those who are 
dramatic writers only, with such as Shakespeare or 
the great Elizabethan dramatists. Characterization 
on its dramatic side cannot possibly reach in fiction 
that high level which by right it attains in the drama 
proper. Somewhat different in its very nature, it is 
mostly different in the form and degrees of its ex- 
pression. The prose of Dickens is here to be compared 
with that of his fellow novelists — preceding and con- 
temporaneous, with that of Scott and Thackeray, 
Fielding and Richardson. Thus compared, he yields 
to no one of them. We deem it safe to affirm that 
in the dramatic or representative description of char- 
acter, he is far superior to any of his predecessors and 
had no equal in his day. If he had not this art, he 
had nothing. It was his strong point as a prose 
Bovelist. 

Apart from this descriptive feature on its dramatic 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DICKENS. 453 

side, however, the prose of Dickens is a striking 
example of general descriptive prose. He had that 
keen and comprehensive view of the outlines of ob- 
jects which is so essential to delineative success in 
the writer. He knew just where to stand so as to get 
the best point of view of the person or scene to be 
sketched and how to fill up in the most picturesque 
and attractive manner the outline presented. In his 
— Pictures from Italy; in Barnabj Kudge; in The 
Tale of Two Cities and in his Child's History, there 
are good examples of this ordinary descriptive writ- 
ing on its historical side, while all through his prose 
those pen pictures appear which mark the style as 
imaginative. He delights to give the "romantic side 
of familiar things." The style is illustrated, as he 
gays, "by everj^-day life and e very-day people." It 
is a happy combination of romance with reality by 
which the one is saved from groundless fancy and 
the other, from literary dullness. His description of 
the Yorkshire Schools, in Nicholas Nickleby; of Mark 
Tapley, Mrs. Gamp, and, especially, of Pecksniff, in 
Martin Chuzzlewit; of Dover, in A Tale of Two 
Cities; of South European life, in his Pictures from 
Ifaly; of the experiences of Pip, in Great Expect- 
tations and the inimitable scenes in Oliver Twist, 
Old Curiosity Shop, The Pickwick Papers and David 
Copperfield will sufficiently indicate that wealth of 
faculty which Boz possessed in this department of 
prose art. In fact, it was enough for him to see a 
thing once to be able to delineate it accurately and 
interestingly to others. 

His — American Notes — and portions of Martin 
Chuzzlewit are the only serious exceptions to this 



454 ENGLISH PROSE. 

statement and here the sufficient explanation is given 
in the words of Ward, his latest biographer — " that 
he had, if not at first, at least, very speedily, taken a 
dislike to American ways which proved too strong for 
him to the last." Even here, however, many of the 
descriptions, which are false as matters of history 
are attractive as specimens of pictorial art in prose. 
Dickens' prose is descriptive as Bacon's is philosophic 
or Burke's impassioned, and no author in English has 
written so much descriptive prose who has written 
it better or with fewer substantial literary faults. 



(2.) Pathos or Sensibility. 

This quality of style is by no means as frequent 
in Dickens as the one discussed. As far as it goes 
however, it is equally characteristic. It is that ele- 
ment of sympathy or sensitiveness which makes im- 
pressive any prose in which it is found. One has 
but to read a short way into the life of Dickens as a 
man or an author before he discovers the prominent 
existence of this quality and the grounds of it. In 
his very first work of any import, he illustrates it." 
In the Pickwick Papers, it appears in th^character 
of Sam Weller in close conjunction with?»d:tieelement 
of humor. In the Old Curiosity Shop, as Ward sug- 
gests: "The key-note is that of an idyllic pathos." 
In — Hard Times — even the despicable part of Grad- 
grind is relieved by genuine strokes of tenderness 
while the one purpose of the book is in the line of 
charity for the suffering. This quality is strikingly 
manifested in those works and characters where the 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DICKENS. 455 

author seems to aim to counteract or conceal irre- 
deemable features of bad men by emphasizing those 
that are indicative of some good still remaining. He 
believed in the better nature of man and would bring 
it into prominence, as in Oliver Twist, in the persons 
of Bates and the Artful Dodger. As Lord Russell 
wrote of him, he had a faculty of " finding diamonds 
hidden far away." So in his personal and generous 
interest in the poor and unfortunate. His devotion 
to the cause of Ragged Schools and Hospitals for sick 
children evinces this. His attempt, as in Nicholas 
Nickleby, Bleak House and numerous other works, to 
right the wrongs of the oppressed is in point. " Be 
not hard upon the poor," is his maxim and appeal. 
His interest in children and, especially, in the outcast 
is proof in point, while in — The Chimes, as in all his 
Christmas Series, his prominent object is to express 
his tender sympathy with all that can alleviate sor- 
row and lighten life. He was full of that humanity 
of which Thackeray so often speaks and in this 
respect resembled his great contemporary. When 
as in the case of the death of Little Nell and similar 
scenes, this pathetic quality of spirit comes to its full- 
est expression, there can be no longer a doubt that it 
was a radical part of his nature and literary activity; 
Such a personal characteristic would naturally become 
a literary characteristic and be suffused through all 
that he wrote. It lends to his style what might be 
called, a mellowness and sweetness of tone, and goes 
far to iHiIlify any of those coarser elements which are 
to some extent necessary in fiction. This gentleness 
of touch is something that is needed in all prose and 
marks the presence of a chaste and sensitive spirit 



456 ENGLISH PROSE. 

behind it. Those who have had the privilege of 
hearing Mr. Dickens recite his own productions will 
have seen how deep a hold of his large nature this 
pathetic element took. Mr. Forster in the third vol- 
ume of his biography calls frequent attention to this 
quality as seen in David Copperfield and other novels. 
It casts a charm over the style and has completely 
disarmed much criticism that otherwise would have 
been destructive. Some, as Mr. Taine and George 
Henry Lewes, contend that this pathos overreaches 
itself, that "the tone is too passionate." They hold 
that the author is controlled by his feelings and sac- 
rifices correctness of literary art to an undue effusion 
of sentiment. 

Mr. Dickens' recent biographers have sufficiently 
met this accusation. Coming from such critics as 
it does it is a compliment more than a rebuke and 
evinces the fact that his style is so permeated by this 
element that the most indifferent must admit its 
presence. There are exceptional instances, indeed, 
when the pathos is too strong for the idea behind it. 
In the main, however, it must be conceded that he 
is master of it and guides it to the best results. To 
eliminate it from his style would be to rob it of one 
of its cardinal features. Such a process could be ap- 
plied to Scott, Bulwer and even to Thackeray and 
Eliot with far less injurious results. 

It is largely through this sympathetic element that 
the unwonted popularity of the author's prose is ex- 
plained. "Passion is catching." The reader is at 
once attracted and enchained. He is brought into the 
closest relations with the novelist and his characters 
and for the time being they are one. It is this ele- 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS. — DICKENS. 457 

menfc, it may be added, that will go far to make the 
writings of Dickens permanent in literature. 

(3.) Humor and Satire. 

" His leading quality," says Mr. Forster, " was 
Humor. It was his highest faculty." Without ac- 
cepting this statement in full, it is safe to class it 
with his descriptive skill as especially prominent. It 
was an organic part of the man. Cheerfulness was 
with him one of the Christian graces. Probably no 
character in English Letters more fully illustrates 
the influence on style of a happy, hopeful, hearty 
temperament. " He \Vas so full of life,'* said our own 
Longfellow, "that it did not seem possible be could 
die." This often took the form, at home and else- 
where, of a good-natured expression of gladness of 
heart by which all others were made glad. Often, it 
took the form of innocent pleasantry and, still again, 
often rose in its best expressions to the highest ex- 
ample of humor and satire combined. He could not 
but see the droll side of men and things. It was as 
natural for him to detect the eccentricities as the 
more regular features of character and one glance at 
an object was sufficient for him to make it the occa- 
sion of genuine English mirth. 

To attempt to cite examples of this quality from 
Dickens' prose is almost needless in that it appears 
upon nearly every page. In Sketches of Boz; in the 
character of Pickwick, Sam Weller and Bo^ Sawyer, 
in Pickwick Papers; in the history of the Squeer's 
family, in Nicholas Nickleby; in the character of 
Dick Sniveller, in Old Curiosity Shop; in that of 



458 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Pecksniff, in Martin Chuzzlewit; in that of Mr. 
Micawber, in David Copperfield; in that of the horse- 
riders, in Hard Times; in that of Mrs Lirriper, in 
Christinas Sketches, and, in fact, wherever we please 
to turn. As in the case of Charles Lamb and Gold- 
smith, this literary pleasantry is often closely con- 
uect-ed with sadness. It is, often, the serio-comic in 
its best expression and with the two elements almost 
equally present. Critics speak of the mirth and sad- 
ness of his humor. In fact, the highest forms of 
humor seem to contain something of this sober ele- 
ment, and yet always kept in due subordination. 
Gerald Massey has pronounced Lamb the first of 
English Humorists. The judgment seems to us to be 
incorrect. There was far too much of the mournful 
and morose to make it wholesome and tonic. 

Dickens was his superior here, in that while there 
was enough of the serious to give richness and body 
to the humor, there was not enough to make it in 
an}^ sense unhealthfal. At this point he was superior 
to Swift, as being free from his morbid propensity, 
and was eten superior to Thackeray, as having less 
of that cynical element in which the author of The 
Newcomes loves to indulge. That sensitiveness of 
soul to which allusion has been made entered into 
the humor of Dickens and softened it without 
weakening it. 

As intimated, this quality is often found in unison 
with satire in all the varied forms of irony — the 
mock-heroic, innuendo and allusion. He was a mas- 
ter of what Forster calls "social satire" — the kindly 
criticism of what he thought sliould be rebuked. 
Many of the characters already adduced in the line 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. — DICKENS. 459 

of humor illustrate this related quality. Others might 
be mentioned, such as that of Uriah Heep, that of 
of Littiruer the valet; of ^Ir. Vholes, Mrs Jelly hy 
and Mr. Guppy; of Gradgrind; of Pip, in Great Ex- 
pectations and of a host of others. In a few rare 
instances, this satire takes the form of harsli in- 
vective, when for the time being, as in parts of 
Little Dorrit, he seems to have lost the fullness of 
his sympathy. He despised everything in the form 
of pretense, injustice and sham, so that his satire is 
often directed against systems and policies as well 
as against persons, as in Oliver Twist, his references 
to parochial management, and in Little Dorrit, to 
British officialism. So, also, in his American Notes 
and in Chuzzlewit as, also, in his unjust allusions 
to persons of his time, in Oliver Twist to Landor, 
and to Leigh Pliint in Bleak House. As a quality of 
style, however, this ironical element enters to play a 
beneficent part. Its close connection with the humor- 
ous saves it from bitterness and makes it more effi- 
cient. In speaking hereafter, of the practical char- 
acter of Dickens' style, it will be seen what an 
important part satire performed in the sum total of 
the result. The special point to be emphasized here 
is, that the humor controlled the satire and not, the 
satire the humor. Dickens was a man in every sense 
and a whole-hearted Englishman. Pie was full of 
life and good feeling with an eye ever open to the 
irregular and when he wrote he could not but be 
jocose and comical. Here, again, is one of the ele- 
ments that will give perpetuity to his prose. It 
carries its own impulse with it. It is the salt that 
saves it. That "freshness and raciness" of style of 



460 ENGLISH PROSE. 

which critics so often speak, finds its explanation in 
this feature. It is more than what Mr. Lewes is 
pleased to call by way of contempt, "mere fun." It 
is a natural flow of genuine good- will, by which the 
reader is made the author's friend. It is to be noted 
that Dickens, in his prose fiction, is more than a 
mere wit as Voltaire was in France or Swift in Ens:- 
land. He cannot rest content with verbal perver- 
sion, with mere punning, but ascends to that higher 
level of humor where the process is psychological and 
has to do with character. Such an order of popular- 
prose is especially in place in modern times when 
there are so many tendencies in literature that are 
misanthropic and morose. The despondent philoso- 
phy is so current that men must have revealed to 
them the lighter side of life lest they be discouraged. 
We are not speaking now, of the strictly ethical 
side of Dickens' prose, but it is in place to affirm, that 
the controlling tendency of it was cheering and up- 
lifting and this largely, through its good-natured 
pleasantry. He aimed to do in his writings just what 
at his home at Gad's Hill he aimed to do as a citizen 
— to make the world around him somewhat cheerier 
by his presence and effort. He attempted to efiect 
this by journalism, by active participation in measures 
of public reform, and was urged by some of his ad- 
visers to enter the House of Commons in order the 
better to promote the public good. He found his 
sphere, however, as a novelist and has presented a 
body of prose about as wholesome and cheerful as 
any in our literature. If it is entertaining without 
being enervating; if it is popular without being 
devoid of substantial merit; if it is racy and readable 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —DICKENS. 461 

without being superficial, it is largely due to the fact 
that in it all, humor and generous satire freely com- 
bine with all the weightier quaUties to interest and 
relieve. Prose Fiction, in the very nature of the case^ 
must largely admit of this attractive element. 

(4.) Practical in Character and Aim. 

Although the prose before us is properly termed — 
prose fiction, there is a basis of reality in it all. Fact 
and fiction combine. The latter is founded upon the 
former. Xor are we speaking now, simply of that 
species of the novel, known as the historical, where, 
as in Sir Walter Scott, it is expected at the outset 
that actual recurrences and events are to form the 
groundwork of the plot. We speak of the novel in 
all its best varieties as involving this element. The 
terms, romance, fiction and novel may be misleading 
here and indicative of the absence of the actual and 
the trite. It is a significant fact in the history of 
fiction that as we ascend from the lower to the 
higher forms of the novel, the element of reality 
and practicalness more largely enters. In the novel 
of sentiment, and that only, the merely narrative 
rules. In the novel of life and manners, however, as 
the very phrase suggests, we are at once in the region 
of the real and have to do with the actual \vorld 
about us. Among all the forms of fiction, this is the 
most characteristic and is the special form which 
Dickens illustrates. As Forster and others wisely in- 
timate, it is no less impossible than it is needless to 
draw minute distinctions between the romantic and 
the realistic in the best prose fiction. Even in the- 



4B2 ENGLISH PROSE, 

ethical or pbilosopliical novel, as seen in Eliot, we 
have the practical element as seen in its other name 
— the novel oi purpose. If Thackeray is more realistic 
than some of his fellows, this is not to say, that he is 
in any true sense devoid of that imaginative power 
which marks the writer who has to do with the ideal. 

As attesting the practical character of Dickens' 
style, attention may be called both to the general 
and specifice purposes he had in view. His general 
aim was, to disseminate wholesome truth among the 
people and, on the negative side, to reform all abuses 
and ameliorate the condition of society. More speci- 
fically, wherever he saw existing wrong or possible 
opportunity for improvement, he addressed himself 
as a writer of fiction to the case in hand. So strong 
a tendency was this in Dickens that some critics, as 
Mr. Ward, admit that the author was in great danger 
of forgetting his proper work as a novelist in the 
interests of social reform. However this may have 
been, he gives us in many of his leading works a rare 
combination of the highest literary art with the best 
practical aims, doing a work here so nobly done by 
his successor — Kingsley. 

Undoubtedly, his early experience in journalism 
and more especially as a parliam':3ntary reporter, gave 
him that personal insight into affairs which made his 
course as a novelist clear to him. Readers of his life 
are familiar with the accounts of his profound inter- 
est in all matter?? of popular progress — on the ques- 
tions of temperance, prison life, penal laws, Sabbath 
observance and the rights of the laboring classes. 

What he gives us as to the Debtor's Prison, in 
Pickwick; as to the Yorkshire Schools, in Nicholas 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DICKENS. 463 

Nickleby; as to the Court of Chancery, in Bleak 
House; as to Parish Oversight, in Oliver Twist; as to 
Administrative Abuses, in little Dorrit; as to Oppres- 
sion of the Poor, in Hard Times; as to what he calls 
"Social Flunkeyism," in our Mutual Friend; and as 
to Hypocrisy in Chuzzlewit, will sufficiently confirm 
the presence of this principle. All is fact here save 
the verbal form in which, for the best effect, the au- 
thor sees fit to present it. The element of the real is 
almost as prominent a factor as it is in Macaulay's 
History af England, or Addison's Spectator. 

It is this same feature of style that appears in his 
uniform preference of actual persons aud scenes as 
the material of his works. This, as we have seen, at 
times, led him to extremes of personal reference. In 
the main, it was wisely applied and gave to his 
fiction the force of historic narrative. 

In Bob Fagin, of Oliver Twist, is represented one 
of the boys at the Hacking warehouse at Flungerford 
stairs. In Mrs.Pipchin of Dombey and Son, was the 
old lady who kept the lodging-house in Little-College 
Street. In the character of the Mpa'chioness in Old 
Curiosity Shop, in his references to the Garland fami- 
ly and Salem House the same principle is illustrated. 
The originals of Boythorn and Skimpole; cf Chancery 
abuses in Bleak House; of Copperfield, Dora, Miss 
Moucher and Micawber in David Copperfield ; of 
Miss Blimber and the Little Wooden Midshipman, in 
Dombey; of the Opium Eater in Edwin Drood: of 
Mrs. Gamp, in Chuzzlewit; of Satis House, in Great 
Expectations; of Mrs. Clennam, in Little Dorritt; of 
Eden, in Chuzzlewit; of the Brothers Cheeryble in 
Nickleby; of Mr. Fang, in Oliver Twist, and of Pick- 



464 ENGLISH PROSE. 

wick in Pickwick Papers, — all these are illustrative 
of that deep desire he had to combine the real and 
the romantic or indeed to make the one the basis of 
the other. 

Dr. Jowett in his euloginm of Dickens in West- 
minister Abbey makes special reference to this practi- 
cal character of the man and the author. " He made 
it his business to rebuke vice and pretence where- 
ever he found it as he rebukes selfishness in Chuz- 
zlewit and pride in Dombey." In such characters as 
Pecksniff and Gradgrind he has not only exhibited 
high power as a novelist but has personally aided the 
cause of good morals for all time. There are few 
scenes more suggestive than those in which he is 
found, as at the door of Whitechapel Workhouse, 
striving at the same time to relieve human wants 
and to secure for future literary use a true account of 
the sufferings of the poor. 

Mr. Euskin in commenting on one of the authors 
novels (Hard Times) while taking exception to some 
matters makes the strong statement — " He is entirely 
right in his main drift and purpose in every book he 
has written, and all of them should be studied with 
close and earnest care by persons interested in social 
questions." The mere cursory reader of Dickens' 
prose secures no adequate idea of this business-like 
quality of his style. He was a social reformer as 
were Howard and Wilberforce, only in a different 
'^way. Never has literature been so fully made the 
instrument of direct national benefit. The wide re- 
ception which Dickens' writings have met in Great 
Britain and elsewhere is not altogether due to their 
literary character as works of fiction, but to their 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —DICKENS. 465 

practical cjiaracter as in the interests of the public. 
He did what Bunyan did — presented life in allegory, 
and in each case the results were marvelous. He did 
in his own way what Milton and Addison and Burke 
did in theirs. There is in all the best English Prose, 
this utilitarian element. The true and the beautiful 
are one. He writes the best who writes for a definite 
objective end. 

(5.) Ease and Naturalness. 

Dickens is remarkable as a prose writer in this 
respect, that it is difficult to tell which one of sev- 
eral leading qualities is clearly the most prominent. 
Some hold that it is his humor; others, that it is his 
descriptive power or his pathos, and others still, that 
it is the marvelous facility and freshness with which 
he writes. Almost the only critic of prominence who 
dissents from this view is Mr. Taine who suggests 
that in the complexity of his narrative he lacks sim- 
plicity. This criticism, however, is to be taken with 
caution and we may safely endorse the judgment of 
that large body of scholars who have spoken of the 
pre-eminence of this quality. It appears very largely 
in that feature of his style already studied as the de- 
scriptive, as, also, in the pathetic and humorous 
elements. Still, it has a distinctive presence and 
power of its own and deserves separate discussion. 
But little has been written respecting the diction or 
sentence structure of Dickens' prose and it is just here 
that much of his rhetorical and literary ease ap- 
pears. It is in fact because of his comparative freedom 
from common fault in these directions that so little 



466 ENGLISH PROSE, 

has been noted regarding them. As soon, as one be- 
gins the reading of Bacon or Johnson or Carlyle the 
questions of phraseology and structure at once arise. 
In the author before us, the very naturahiess pre- 
vents the starting of the question as to merit or 
demerit. Mr. Ward quotes him as saying to Wilkie 
Collins that " underlining was not his nature." The 
meaning of the words and sentences took care of 
itself The emphasis of the various parts followed 
the law of nature and could not be easily mistaken. 
Readers of his novels must have noticed the felicitous 
way he has of stating what he has to say as he wishes 
to say it and stopping there. There are instances, 
indeed, where for the sake of oddity and humor he 
adopts quaint phrases and paraphrase, as in Pick- 
wick, Pecksiiifi'and in other characters. These how- 
ever were aside from his regular habit and intensify 
by contrast the naturalness of his ordinary style. 
Dickens was in no sense a " bookish " man. He 
preferred life to literature itself It was his joy, not 
so much that he wrote, as that he wrote for the peo- 
ple, as he says, " for the hearth and the home." Hence, 
his style was eminently popular and became more 
and more so as his work went on. 

The words affixed to his first work — Sketches by 
Boz — illustrative of Every Day Liffe and Every Day 
People, might have been added to each of his novels. 
He was a student of nature and human nature and 
wrote a style so homely as to be understood by the 
common classes and, yet, not so homely as to be 
neglected by the educated. There is very much in 
Dickens' prose of the simplicity of Fuller, Walton 
and Bunyan and the older English writers. His 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS. —DICKENS. 4G7 

want of knowledge of the classics, while it had its 
disadvantages, had also the advantage of shntting 
hiiu up more closely to a line of diction and form of 
structure entirely English. 

In fine, Dickens wrote a popular prose and largely 
due to that ease and naturalness of which we speak. 
His early experience in journalism and his habit of 
writing in short serial form as in Household Words 
did much to increase the facility of his style. It is 
at this point as at many others, that Dickens diff'ers 
in such marked degree from the school of George 
Eliot. There is notliing of the abstruse and met- 
aphysical either in idea or expression — no learned 
references to Plato and Tasso and the philosophers, 
but a "plain, unvarnished tale," so that "he that 
runs may read.'' He is superior, at this point, eveu 
to Thackeray and Charlotte Bi-onte and fully the 
equal of Scott and Kingsley, Macdonald and Bulwer. 
There are but few of those mystic phrases in which 
the author of Vivian Grey and Endymion loves to in- 
dulge, but an out and out straightforwardness. We 
have spoken of Dickens' style as felicitous. There 
is no better word by which to express it. Its effect 
is a happy one. It is the transfer of nature to the 
printed page. It is a facile and spontaneous ex- 
pression of simple ideas whereby the reader is alike 
charmed and instructed. 

DEFECTS OF STYLE. 

Dickens' prose has its faults and they have not 
been allowed to escape. As in the case of Keats and 
Wordsworth, critics have arisen who seem to be 



468 ENGLISH PROSE. 

more desirous of inflicting wounds upon sensitive 
natures than of serving the highest interests of 
letters. Students are aware of the appUcation of 
this destructive criticism in special instances, as at 
the appearance of Bleak House. The " dogs of war " 
were " let loose " and " Havoc " ! seemed to be the cry. 
It was when the author was in his prime and just 
after the great success of Copperfield. It was, also, 
in spite of t lie fact that the success of Bleak House was 
unprecedented and that in construction and general 
character it marked a high order of power. Still, cer- 
tain of the critics "of the baser sort'' spoke contemp- 
tuously of the author and his work, acknowledged 
some evidences of genius, but — they called him a 
charlatan and caricaturist, spoke of his plan as crude 
and of his characters as grotesque and unnatural and 
greatly lamented that he could not rise to the dis- 
cussion of the " high born and wealthy." This school 
of critics has continued since the publication of Bleak 
House, in 1852, and finds its latest exponents, as al- 
already suggested, in Mr. Taine and Mr. Lewes. The 
one may be said to represent the foreign and the 
other, the English school of criticism, agreeing, how- 
ever, in serious objections to the wide-famed novelist, 
as a man whose fancy ran wildly away with him. 
Suffice it to say, at this point, that Mr. Taine's 
relation to French Fiction, as illustrated in Balzac, 
Sand and others, and Mr. Lewes' relation to that 
school of English Fiction of which his wife was the 
head, made it impossible for either of them fairly to 
sit in judgment upon Dickens' work. In each case 
there were ends to serve while quite apart from this, 
the adverse criticism so overreaches itself as to have 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— DICKEiYS. 469 

but little weight with candid minds. Sensitive as 
he. was to the opinions of others he would willingly 
have yielded to the sentiment expressed by Words- 
worth — " I am not at all desirous that any one 
should write a critique on my poems. If they be 
from ahove^ they will do their own work in course of 
time; if not, they will perish as they ought." As he 
says in his will, " I rest my claim to the remembrance 
of my country upon my published works." 

This conceded, there is safe ground on which some 
features of the style of Dickens may be judged and 
condemned. He had defects and blemishes and, 
yet, not enough to depose him from that higli rank 
he has so loiig ogjcupied as an able and a facile writer 
of English. 

Some of these defects of style we shall briefly 
consider. 

(1.) Want of Philosophical Power. 

Of the four great classes of novels — The Descriptive 
Historical, Sentimental and Psychological, Dickens 
would not have succeeded in the last as he did in the 
first. The structure of his style follows the structure 
of his mind. Even as to his earliest relations to lit- 
erature we are told " that the artists of the stage, 
whom he most admired, were not those of the high- 
est mental type." It has been strenuously held by 
some as confirmed by his works, that the portraiture 
of the highest type of man was outside of his sphere 
and power. The genius for characterization as dis- 
tinct from that for mere caricature, is denied him. 
It is just here that Taine and Lewes deal their 



470 ENGLISH PROSE, 

sharpest blows against him, as being more of an en- 
thusiast than a thinker. They contend that his 
style is not marked by that " high thinking" of which 
Wordsworth speaks, but rather by the presence of 
those elements which make it readable and popular 
only. His imagination, they say, was poetic and in 
no sense, philosophic; that he gives us the description 
rather than the thorough analysis of character, and 
that, thus, the highest effect of his fiction is a ge- 
nial form of literary pleasure rather than an intel- 
lectual discipline and profit There is an element of 
truth in this and, beyond question, it marks the point 
at which the author is the weakest. Dickens was in 
no definite sense a scholar. Apart from the sphere 
of nature and human life, he was not in the mental 
view of it, a student. Some of his views on, the great 
political questions of his day and, more especially, his 
hasty conclusions as to American life and character, 
manifest an order of mind which had but little to do 
with logical processes. Mr. Ruskin, in commenting 
on — Hard Times — well remarks — " I wish, when he 
takes up a subject of high national importance, that 
he would use severer and more accurate analysis." 
Critics speak correctly of his want of logical con- 
structive power as seen in most of his earlier novels, 
as in Pickwick, and in the later, as in Nickleby and 
Copperfield. The charge against Bleak House is 
" absolute want of construction," and though ably 
met by Forster is still in place. 

In fact, Dickens' mind and style, in this respect, 
are discursive rather than didactic. He observes 
facts better than he reasons on the facts furnished 
him by observation. The serial method which he 



REPRESENTATIVE WRTTERS.—DICKENS. 471 

adopteci RO largely in his publications had some 
advantages in the way of viewing a continuous story 
or ph)t in separate sections, but it had the great dis- 
advantage of magnifying the part above the whole 
and of cutting in twain at various points the logical 
sequence of the thought. Serial as the method was, 
it was " discontinuous." Allusion has been made to 
the wide difference between George Eliot's style and 
that of Dickens. The difference lies mainly at this 
point and with reference to it exclusively is decidedly 
in favor of the former. Dickens' style has its great 
merits and mission, but it is not in the sphere of the 
purely intellectual. Prose Fiction is not the higliest 
form of prose, partly because of the nature of it as semi- 
poetical and partly because of its ultimate purpose. 

It is still an open question whether Dickens did 
not owe much of his success to the fact that he 
worked in a literary sphere where the highest forms 
of intellectual power were not demanded in order to 
the best results. Even in this sphere, however, he 
confined himself to descriptive work, save in Barnaby 
Rudge and A Tale of Two Cities. He had but little 
aptitude for the historical novel as compared with 
Scott and Kingsley, and none whatever for the philo- 
sophical, as compared with Eliot. Here, therefore, 
is limitation of area and of power. The student of 
style must look to Dickens for that only which he 
has to offer him. He must not expect to find any 
great examples of psychological dissection. His 
prose is entertaining rather than educating and 
stimulating. It leaves the reader happier, and on 
the whole, better, but none the stronger in men- 
tal fiber and possibility. 



472 ENGLISH PROSE. 

hi this respect Dickens' style fails just where Prose 
Fiction as an order of prose fails — in mental enlarg- 
inent and suggestion. Good as it is in its proper 
place, it ma}' be safely said that as long as it continues 
to form the larger part of the people's intellectual 
food, so long will the popular mind fail to reach the 
highest levels of intelligence and mental growth. 

(2.) Want of Artistic Finish. 

The question here, is not that started by some crit- 
ics—which is the more important, essential excellence 
of subject-matter or external execution? On this there 
need be no doubt. The principle is that these should 
exist together in all the highest forms of prose. In 
fact, the more excellent the idea, the more excellent 
the outer form should be. When thought and style 
exist in the inverse ratio in any writer it proves on 
his part total ignorance as to the vital relation of the 
two and nullifies the value of each. There is, un- 
doubtedly, in fiction as a form of prose, a strong 
temptation to the coarse and clownish. It is far 
easier for the novelist to violate the ''proprieties" 
and feel guiltless than it is for the biographer, his- 
torian or literar}^ critic so to do. It is the prime 
object of fiction to present life just as it is and as the 
writer is engaged in his personations, he unconsci- 
ously passes from legitimate freedom of manner to 
looseness and grossness. The eosthetic element in its 
best form is too often absent as we read Dickens. 
He often yields, for supposed effect, to undue license 
here. 

Some of the forms of this error may be noted. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.—DICKENS. 473 

It is seen, often, in the way of exaggeration as in 
Hard Tioies, Little Dorritt, and other examples; in 
that verhoseness so common to the best specimens of 
fiction, and most especially in what may be called the 
— artifice or mannerism of his style. Repeated atten- 
tion has been called to this artistic defect both by 
friends and foes. This error is noticeable in Oliver 
Tvvist; in Barnaby Rudge; in Bleak House with its 
•'overstrained tone "; in A Tale of Two Cities; in Our 
Mutual Friend; in Chuzzlewit and Nickleby. Mr. 
Ward in forecasting the probable future of Dickens 
as a prose writer alludes to the error now before us 
as one of his " characteristic faults." He justifies it, 
however, on the ground that " mannerism is incident 
to every original manner"; to Carlyle, Thackeray 
and Macaulay. This is true and yet its presence mars 
the style. Nor must mannerism be confounded with 
originality, as Mr. Ward seems to confound it. In- 
ventive genius is one thing, artifice is quite another, 
and our author is found far too frequently at fault in 
the latter. The error of "forced construction" is 
somewhat incident to all fiction. At this point 
Dickens would have written better had he written 
less. He had scarcely the time to complete his 
work as to artistic form and detail. The Mj^stery of 
Edwin Drood is not his only unfinished work. 

Probable Permanence of his Prose. 

As to the future of Dickens' fame as a novelist and 
writer of English Prose, various opinions have been 
broached. Naturally, those of the school of Lewea 
and Taine predict a brief and uncertain reputation in 



474 ENGLISH PROSE. 

history. Others, less extreme, see no special reason 
for an ever- widening popularity and would not be 
surprised to mark a gradual decadence of influence. 
Others still, pass to the other extreme of forecasting 
an earthly immortality for the author equal to that 
for which they contend in the case of Shakespeare. 
In the analysis of the author's style, already given, 
enough has been said to mark both the extent and 
the limitations of his future renown, and to indicate, 
as we judge, a good degree of literary influence in 
the years to come. Local as much of his fiction is in 
the occasion of its origin, the issues at stake were, 
after all, living issues for the most part and as such 
have to do with the continuous history of the race. 
There are Pecksniff's, Fagins and Gradgrinds in every 
age and as they arise they need rebuke. Hypocrisy, 
pride and selfishness are the same now as then, while 
the nobler characters and virtues that he portrayed 
will ever elicit affection and respect. Quite apart 
from all this, as a mere question of style and literary 
art, the qualities mentioned are enough to conserve 
any authorship in which they inhere. No Avriter can 
evince such descriptive skill, pathos, humor, practical 
purpose and verbal ease and not continue to hold a 
prominent place in current literature. The want of 
close logical acuteness and of external finish cannot 
so seriously impair such a style as to prevent its his- 
torical continuance. This is especiall}'- so Avhen the 
subject- matter itself is in the sphere of fiction as 
the most popular form of prose. Dr. Jowett remarks 
substantially that Dickens, for the last thirty-five 
years of his life (1835-70) occupied a larger space in 
the minds of Englishmen than any other writer, Mr. 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS— DICKENS. 475 

Forster opens his eulogistic biography with the refer- 
ence to Dickens as " the most popular novelist of the 
century." Each of these statements was true when 
made. 

Modern critics, favorably disposed, need not, how- 
ever, insist upon such high eulogium at present in 
order to prove the probable continuance of the au- 
thor's fame, but only show that he still holds a pro- 
minent and substantial place in English Prose and 
bids fair to retain it for generations. " He would be 
a bold man," writes Ward, as to Pecksniff, " who 
should declare that its popularity has very materially 
diminished at the present day." This remark may 
apply to all his best productions and to his general 
style as a novelist as he adds — " There is no reason 
whatever to believe that since his deatli the delight 
taken in his works through England and North 
America, as well as elsewhere, has diminished. 
Morley and Tyler, in their recent Manual of English 
Literature, go so far as to say that "he is still the 
raost widely read novelist that England has pro- 
duced." This assertion is made in view of Beacons- 
field, Bronte, Bulwer and Thackeray, and he who 
denies it must prove its falsity. 

As to the influence of his style, reference is made 
by critics to what even Carlyle and Eliot obtained 
from him by way of impulse and suggestion; to what 
Continental and x\merican romancers, such as Auer- 
bach and Harte have owed to him, and to the gener- 
al stimulus which all must have gotten from him who 
attempt in any worthy way to pen the novel of Life 
and Manners. 

In estimating more accurately the probable future 



476 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of the author, the most serious argument against the 
conservation of his full power, lies in the direction of 
the ethical. " It has been objected," says Mr. Forster, 
" that humanity receives from him no addition to its 
best types; that the burlesque humorist is always 
stronger in him than the reflective moralist; that the 
light thrown by his genius into out-of-the-way cor- 
ners of life never steadily shines in its higher beaten 
ways; and that beside his pictures of what man is or 
does, there is no attempt to show, by delineation of 
an exalted purpose or a great career, what man is 
able to be or do." The criticism is acknowledged by 
his biographer as abstractly just, and he attempts to 
answer it fully by showing that indirectly, if not di- 
rectly, the author served the highest moral ends, that 
as a genius he must be allowed to take his own way 
and not be held responsible for not doing good just as 
Milton and Addison did it. There is truth in this 
adverse criticism and some truth in the refutation. 
The answer, however, is not satisfactory. Dickens 
was a moralist of a high order. He was a genuine 
philanthropist. He saw " good in everything " and 
aimed to show the " soul of goodness in things evil." 
He did a vast and generous work, as we have seen, 
on the side of social and public morals and for the 
common weal of his fellows. The moral purity of 
his style is such that the most delicate taste need not 
be offended. All is correct and in good order. 

Still, there is something wanting to the fullest force 
of the style on its ethical side. The allusion here is 
not to his intense hatred of cant. Puritanical strait- 
neas, ecclesiasticism and all forms of Pharisaism, nor 
to his advocacy of a somewhat liberal Sabbath for the 



REPRKSE^TTATIVE WRITKRS.—DICKENS. 477 

people and an " undogmatic theology." As far as 
Romanism was concerned, he was a Protestant, and 
bnt little, if anythin.g more can be said. Connected 
by birth and training witli the English Church, he is 
found in middle life an advocate of Unitarianism, 
which for the time, meant for him simply freedom 
from restriction of creed or form. He based his be- 
liefs on the New Testament and ignored the Old. 
He let no occasion pass for turning his satire on 
special goodness in the form of piety, and could 
Bcarcely speak of the clergy without injustice and pre- 
judice. There is something suspicious in all this and 
the keen-eyed reader of Dickens' prose will detect be- 
tween the lines that something is absent that should be 
present. The usual question at this point is — whether 
Dickens, as a writer, will stand the full Baconian test, 
" for the glory of God and the relief of man's estate," 
or that eyvemplified in John Milton — "as ever in 
my Great Task-Master's eye." We believe not. His 
prose is an example of classic English and is ethically 
pure. It is instinct with noble sentiments and per- 
vaded by a worthy purpose on the behalf of men. 
This is its merit but this is its limit. At this point 
he is immeasurably superior to Swift and Smollett, 
whom he too fondly loved, but far inferior to such En- 
glish writers as Bacon, Milton, Addison and Kingsley. 
In the broad daylight of our life, when all is bright 
and all is well, his prose is a source of additional 
happiness and hope, but he has little for us when the 
night cometh and the '* lights are low " and we need 
the safest guidance through the darkness into day. 

Dickens' prose will be permanently popular, but 
mainly among those who read it purely as a product 



478 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of literary art and for the ends of literary profit and 
pleasure. To those who look for higher things, other 
minds must minister. 

He was a novelist out and out. His style is unique 
and masterly in that sphere of authorship, and will 
ev^er be studied with profit by him who desires to 
write an order of English, which, though it may not 
be marked by logical acuteness, philosophic breadth, 
deep religious life or exquisite finish, is withal, clear, 
simple, facile and practical. 

References and Authorities. 

Forster's Life of Dickens. Ward's — Dickens (Eng. 
Men of Let.). Whipple's Lit. and Life. Taine's Eng. 
Lit. Field's — Yesterday with Authors. 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE PROSE STYLE OF THOMAS CARLIIiE. 

Brief Biographical Sketch. 

Born Dec. 4th, 1795, in Ecclefeohan, Scotland. 
Educated at Parish School and at Annan. Entered 
Edinburgh University, 1810. Left in 1814. Taught 
at Annan and Kircaldy. From 1823, devoted to au- 
thorship. Lived at Craigenputtoch, 1828-34. Thence 
to Chelsea, London. Lord Rector of Edinburgh, 1865. 
Died in 1881. 

His Prose Writings. 

These may be mentioned substantially, as follows: 

French Revolution (1837). 

Oliver CromivelVs Letters and Speeches (1845). 

Life of Schiller (1823-4), Examination of his Writings. 

Life of John Sterling (1851). 

History of Frederic II ( 1858-65 ). 

Sartor Resartus (1833-65). 

Lectures on Heroes, Hero Worship (1840). 

Past and Present (1843). 

Latter Day Pamphlets (1850). 

Chartism (1839). 

Critical aiid Miscellaneous Essays (1838). 



480 ENGLISH PROSF. 

Translations from the German (1825-7). 

WilMm Meister (traDslation) (1823-4). 

Specimens of German Bomance (1827). 

Early Kings of Norway. 

Unpublished : Leciureson History of Literature (1837). 
Restoration of 3Iodem Europe (1839). 

Other productions such as, his Translation of Le- 
gendres Geometry, need not here be mentioned. 

CHARACTERISTIC IVIERITS OF HIS STYLE. 
(1.) Origlnah 

If the prose of Carljle has but one feature, it is 
this. Critics who doubt and discuss as to all other 
qualities are at one here. The reader has but to turn 
at random to any page in the best specimens of the 
author to see the illustration of this. It is safe to 
afiSrm that this characteristic may be said to belong 
to Carlyle as a writer with as little question as 
any literary quality belongs to any separate writer. 
Some prefer to call it by different names, but it is, in 
reality, one and the same element. It may be termed 
the eccentric or quaint or unconventional or inven- 
tive. In any case, it is original. It is the real 
Carlylese. We read in his life, that as a man he 
liked that " independence through which he could 
be enabled to remain true to himself"; that he 
sought retiracy in order that he might think for 
himself and not merely as the multitude. 

He did not so much *' strive to invent a new sort 
of style," as Mr. Hutton has it, but wrote naturally 
in a manner and order of his own, quite in-espective 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —CARLYLE. 481 

of the canons of the schools or the habits of his 
contemporaries. As Bacon introduced a new method 
of philosophy into England, so Carlyle, in his prose, 
widely departed from all existing models and became 
his own example and guide. He had opened, in a 
sense, a new literary world and asked no owq to dic- 
tate to him as to how it should be worked. There is 
a way of putting things that marks inventive ability, 
and Carlyle was an adept in the art. On almost 
every page the evidences of this originality appear, 
in the form of passages that are so striking as to ar- 
rest and hold attention. The ideas themselves we 
may have heard a score of times, but in the novelty 
of their form they give, at the time, the impression 
of absolute freshness of utterance, as in the following: 
"I should not have known what to make of this 
world at all," said Carlyle to Froude, ''if it had not 
been for the French Revolution." In his wonderful 
correspondence with Mr. Emerson, as ably edited in 
this country by Prof Norton, of Harvard University, 
we find a passage of this order which is but the rep- 
resentative of numbers in the same series of letters.— 

" There is," he says, " a word, which if spoken to 
men, to the actual generation of men, would thrill 
their inmost souls, but how to find that word, how to 
S'peal:, it when found ! " This paragraph is Carlylese 
throughout and indicates the presence of that ruling 
passion — to find and utter the one right truth of all 
others. 

In his diary kept at Craigenputtoch, he writes — 

'•Tome there is nothing poetical in Scotland but its religion." 
" The only inspiration 1 know of, is that of genius. It was, is, 
and will always be of a divine character." 



482 ENGLISH PROSE, 

" The Devil has his elect." 

"One great desideratum in every society'' is, a man to hold his 
peace." 

" God is above us, else the future of the world were well nigh des- 
perate. Go where we may, the deep heaven will be round us." 

Similar sayings from other writings may be briefly 
mentioned. 

In Sartor Resartus, he says — 

"Cast forth thy act, thy word, into the ever-living, ever-working 
universe: it is a seed grain that cannot die." 

In the Latter Day Pamphlets, he writes — 

'* Contrive to have a true opinion, you will get it told in some way, 
better or worse : and it will be a blessing to • all creatures. Have a 
false opinion and tell it with the tongue of angels, what can that 
profit ? The better you tell it, the worse it will be." 

Again — 

" Contrive to talk well, you will get to Heaven, the modem 
heaven of the English. Silence means annihilation for the English- 
man of the nineteenth century. Vox, is the God of this universe." 

In Past and Present, we read — 

" Think it not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an 
unknowable individual; know what thou canst work at and work 
at it like a Hercules." 

And again, — 

" It is like jesting Pilate, asking — What is Truth? Jesting Pilate 
bad not the smallest chance to ascertain what was Truth. He 
could not have known it, had a god shown it to him." 

In these and similar passages capable of large 
multiplication, there is the evidence of a " new 
organ " of style — a special phase of statement, always 
striking and, sometimes, startling. It is personality 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 483 

and peculiarity combined. There is an individuality 
here amounting to genius. The author seemed to 
have a kind of gift in this direction whereby all that 
he uttered was ratified at once as his and needed no 
further witness. 

Headers must have noticed, at this point, how ab- 
solutely free the author is from reference or quotation 
in any servile sense. His quotations are compara- 
tively rare, but when he does use them from his 
favorite authors, such as, Goethe and Richter and 
the English poets, he uses them independently and 
as subordinate to his own opinion. Everywhere he 
is himself and only so. His prose is as clearly trace- 
able to its author as is that of Pickwick to Dickens, 
or that of the Rambler, to Dr. Johnson. There is 
high rhetorical and literary merit in this and it is 
full of suggestion to the ambitious student. It means 
that, first of all, is ingenuousness of style — the candid 
expression of the man on the page, unmoved by the 
thousand influences that tend to dictate to him just 
how he shall deliver himself "To thine own self be 
true," is the word of guidance. " Be thyself Ex- 
press th3^^elf Speak thy words in thine own way 
and there will always be listeners." 

Such originah'ty of style is too rare ever to pass 
unnoticed. 

(2.) Cogent. 

This second characteristic of the prose before us is 
equally manifest and is, in fact, vitally connected with 
the first. Other things being equal, to be original in 
method is to be potent. If " knowledge is power," 
creative genius is a greater power. 



484 ENGLISH PROSE, 

*' In Carlyle," says Minto, " the central and com- 
manding emotion is power." It is so in his style. 
One has to read but a short way in order to see and 
feel the presence of personal force. Whatever the 
writing is, or is not, it is strong and energetic, taking 
hold of the mind and feelings with unusual grasp. It 
is suggestive to note how this quality manifests itself 
in Carlyle's prose, appearing in special measure in 
special writings, such as — The -French Eevolution, 
The Life of Cromwell, and his political pamphlets. 

At times, it takes the form of sharp and pregnant 
antithesis, equaling the skill of Bacon himself in the 
line of apothegm and epigram. In his contrast, be- 
tween Schiller and Alfieri, there is a fine example 
of vigorous contrast, reminding us of Junius and 
Dryden. 

In his — Death of Goethe — he writes, 

" Let the reader liave szen before he attempts to oversee." 
"Under the intellectual union of man and man, which works by 
precept, lies a holier unison of affection, working by example. For 
loYe is ever the beginning of knowledge as fire is of light." 

" This man (Goethe) became morally great by being in his own 
age what in some other ages many might have been — a genuine 
man. His grand excellency was this, that he was genuine." 

So elsewhere — 

" The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself." 

"Do the duty which liest nearest thee. Thy second duty will 
already have become clearer. Find out your task; stand to it; the 
night cometh when no man can work." 

At times, this vigor of style takes the form of an 
intense passionateness of expression wherein the very 
soul of the author seems to be embodied. He illus- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 485 

t rates in such passages that gospel of activity which 
he was so constantly preaching — doing with one's 
might what one had to do. He holds that " the end 
of man is action and not thought"; that every one 
has a mission and must fulfill it or be false to con- 
science. His style is full of this active principle by 
which in its effect it becomes impulsive and stimula- 
tive. There is to the reader a quickening agency in 
it so that he is all astir and alive to effort. 

Much of the cogency of Carlyle's prose comes from 
a kind of " rugged sublimity" that is seen in it. His 
earnestness takes an impassioned and fiery forrn and 
often rises to the region of the heroic, illustrative of 
many of those principles presented in his lectures on 
Hero Worship. ISTot infrequently he speaks with the 
tone and commanding force of a prophet; in seri- 
ous and intrepid manner and demands audience and 
assent. 

Carlyle's admiration of Luther did not stop at 
mere admiration. There was in his nature and 
stj^le that Lutheran cogency by which telling effects 
are produced. The cast of the prose is, at times, 
Hebraic in its moral sobriety and must be heeded. 
There is nothing of the imbecile and vacillating in 
Carlyle. "What he was, he was intensely and what 
he wrote, he wrote from the soul out. He believed 
he had a message to men and he uttered it as if he 
believed it. 

This cogency and warmth of utterance led Carl^de, 
at times, into extravagance of statement. When he 
says, "that the essence of all science lies in the Philo- 
sophy of Clothes"; "that the art of speech is the 
saddest of curses," he speaks at random. His state- 



486 ENGLISH PROSE. 

merits as to the wild disorder of these " latter days"; 
as to the French Eevolution and the times of Crom- 
well; his forebodings as to the immediate future of 
society and law and his frequent use of the most ex- 
treme form of hyperbole and exclamation are in the 
line of this extravagance. In these and similar de- 
clarations the author must be allowed much margin 
and be followed with a wise reserve. Such cases, 
after all, are exceptional, and mark the overflow of 
that deep energy of feeling of which he was the sub- 
ject and sometimes the servant. He had in his soul 
much of that passion ateness of feeling which Burke 
possessed and each alike gave violent vent thereto 
iti special emergencies. Carlyle's prose is energized 
by this passion and the reader is soon convinced that 
he is perusing an author whose language is the 
expression of his innermost self and is, therefore, 
cogent. Goethe, as quoted by Mr. Froude, seems to 
refer alike to his force and originality as he says of 
Carlyle, " that he was fortunate in having within 
himself an originating principle of conviction out of 
which he could develop the force that lay in him." 

(3.) Versatile and Suggestive. 

A cursory survey of the writings of the author, as 
we have detailed them, will reveal something of this 
versatility of talent in the department of English 
Prose Literature. We find substantially all the great 
forms of prose authorship represented — History, 
Biography, Description, Miscellany, Criticism, Di- 
dactic or Speculative Prose, Translations and Letters. 
In these various forms all the important pending 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 4S7 

questions of the time are discussed as they arise in 
pohtics, society, philosophy and practical Hfe. It is 
not to be forgotten that in the prose of Carlyle we 
are dealing with the productions of an accomplished 
scholar. From the time of his entrance into the 
University of Edinburgh, in his fifteenth year, he 
was a student of scholarly habits and attainments, 
specially versed in classical and scientific knowledge. 
His knowledge of the literature of Germany was 
greater than that possessed by any Englishman of 
his time and accounts for that most important work 
which he did in awakening on British soil special 
interest in Teutonic Letters. 

As to the reading of all that was best in home and 
foreign literature he was fally the equal of Macaulay. 
Some of his essays, especially those on Goethe, Richter 
and German Literature, will reveal to the student 
something of the extent and variety of his knowledge. 

Carlyle's prose reveals the fact that he was out and 
out a lover of letters. He was an author in heart, 
and an author by profession. He was proud to be 
called "a writer of books." He believed with Fichte, 
"that the true literary man is the world's priest, con- 
tinually upholding the Godlike to man," or as he says 
in one of his essays, " Could ambition always choose 
its own path, all truly ambitious men would be men 
of letters." It was thus that he loved to write and to 
keep himself in close relation by study and reading 
with all other writers of ancient and modern note. 

It is true, as we are told, that Carlyle has his favor- 
ite topics which he is never weary of discussing, and 
where constant discussion seems somewhat to detract 
from this quality of versatility. Such themes as, 



488 ENGLISH PROSE. 

Labor, Democracy, Heroes and Heroism, The Ever- 
lasting No and Yes, German Literature and the 
Discords of Modern Times, he was fond of presenting 
whenever opportunity offered. The forms of tlieir 
presentation, however, were endlessly diversified 
while, as we have seen, outside of these special topics, 
his prose reveals what he would call a " wide-acred" 
range on all subjects of human interest. Carlyle 
had his intellectual hobbies. All great writers have 
had them. The criticism is extreme, however, Avhich 
insists that he was thereby contracted in his area 
and literary variety. A rapid perusal of the different 
subje'cts which make up the seven volumes of his 
Miscellaneous Essays would be sufficient to reveal the 
injustice of such criticism. Nor is there mere variety 
of theme in the prose of Carlyle, but mental sugges- 
tiveness and stimulus — a true intellectual impulse 
which, after all, is the best benefit that one gets from 
the study of an author. It is not necessary to go as 
far as Minto when he says, " Probably more intellec- 
tual force has been spent upon the production of Car- 
lyle's books than upon those of any two other writers 
in general literature." It is sufficient to affirm here 
that the prose of Carlj^le is, in the main, an intellec- 
tual order of prose and thus fruitful in suggestion. 
As it required mind to produce it, it requires mind 
appreciatively to peruse it. It is " mixed with 
brains," as John Brown would phrase it. Though 
Carlyle was not a metaphysician in the technical 
sense and could not sit with patience under the 
teachings of Thomas Brown at Edinburgh, he was a 
thinker and a philosopher. He held that a man 
should be measured by his intellectual power. He 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 489 

believed as Bacon did in "mental stuff" and aimed 
to compact in his writings as much substance as pos- 
sible. No writer of Englisli has, at this point, better 
ilhistrated the vital relation of thought to style. 
Carl\-le's st)le is, simply" his thought in form. The 
style itself is intellect iial. Hence, the explanation of 
the fact th.it his prose must be read and read again, if 
the full benetit is to be secured. It is a prose that must 
be pondered and studied. Nor is this because it is 
enigmatical and complex. Something of this element 
enters, as we shall see, but in those portions of his 
writings that are substantially clear, the meaning- 
must often be reached by patient re-perusal. The 
sentences are pregnant with ideas. In many of them 
the thoughts are so closely packed that the most in- 
tense and undivided attention is needed to unfold tliem*. 
Carlyle was a thinker. He was more of a thinker 
than he was a logician. He was alwaj's cogitating 
and with his eyes wide open to men and things about 
him, so that when he took his pen in hand it was not 
to utter mere truisms or platitudes but germinal ideas 
and suggestions. No one can read him and not be 
intellectually quickened. His prose is not given us 
as a pastime but as a mental stimulant. Whatever 
its faults may be, it has the great merit of being a 
wide departure from the sentimental, ornate or merely 
entertaining. It is thoughtful — full of thought. 

(4.) Deiineative and Graphic. 

This is not as striking a feature in any of its phases 
in Carlyle as the others already mentioned. It is too 
prominent, however, to be overlooked in any just 



490 ENGLISH PROSE. 

estimate of his style, especially manifest in the writ- 
ings of his later years. 

This descriptive talent is expressed in various 
forms. Tliey may be said to be Historical Sketching, 
Power of Characterization and Figurative Language. 

As to the first of these, abundant evidence is given 
in his biographical and strictly historical works, most 
especially, in The French Revolution and in Frederic 
the Great. There are passages here, as indeed in 
Cromwell and the Essays, that are worth}^ of the best 
paragraphs of Barke, De Quincey or Victor Hugo, 
while some critics have not hesitated to give him 
here the lirst place in English Prose. His descrip- 
tion of the disorders that followed the taking of the 
Bastile: of the attack upon the palace at Versailles; 
of Louis XV. and his courtiers; of Frederic and his 
times; of the execution of Raleigh; of events under 
Cromwell ; of the Pragmatic Sanction and of natural 
scenery are among the best specimens of word-paint- 
ing and seem for the time to place Carlyle among 
the prose-poets of our literature. 

In fact, Carlyle's historical style was more descrip- 
tive than narrative. He did not write history in 
that didactic manner in which Hurrie wrote it or as 
Mr. Froude has written it, but in a manner so graphic 
and pictorial that it may be said to belong to delin- 
eative writing. As the French would say, he depicts. 
Scenes take precedence of facts, and imagery of 
reality. 

The History of the French Revolution, in its three 
great parts — The Bastile, The Constitution and The 
Guillotine — is the best example of this narrative- 
descriptive style. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. — CARLYLE, 491 

In the sphere of dramatic representation or the 
portraiture of character, he was even more success- 
ful, being mentioned by Minto and others in the 
same breath with Shakespeare himself There is 
delineation here on the dramatic side for which the 
author has fitting opportunity in his biographical 
and miscellaneous papers. His Life of SterUng is a 
model in this respect, as, also his presentation of the 
great German Emperor and the great English Com- 
moner. His depiction of the Revolution of 1848 ; of 
the growth and working of the democratic element 
in government; of the right of franchise; of the 
presumption of aristocracy; of the inmates of the 
''Model Prisons"; of The Soldiers of Literature in 
The Republic of Letters and of the Heroic in History 
is of this dramatic order of description. There is a 
decided histrionic talent manifest here which seems 
alike to show the breadth of the author's power and 
to infuse into his prose the element of poetic interest. 

As to figurative language ^ a large amount of this 
might naturally be expected in such a writer as 
Carlyle. On the basis of that originality, passionate 
energy and versatility referred to, this symbolic 
feature would rest. Such a mind could not abide as 
a writer, within the narrow limits of literal usage, 
but must accept the privilege of poetic license ac- 
corded it in the use of the pictorial. He was a man 
in whom imagination had its full place and did its 
full work. The speculative tendencies of his mind 
led him toward the romantic and figurative. It was 
Carlyle himself who held the view so often quoted, 
that metaphors make up the largest part of language 
and that he acted unwisely who ignored this funda- 



492 ENGLISH PROSE, 

mental fact. He called them " its nucleus and tis- 
sues." In historical description and in characteriza- 
tion he freely used them, while in all his writings 
they enter as a radical element. Even where they 
are somewhat overwrought and rugged, they answer 
his purpose of giving increasing force and vividness 
to the meaning behind them. He used them more 
for effect than for ornament- 
In his speculative writings — Sartor Resartus, Lat- 
ter Day Pamphlets and Past and Present, his figures 
are often of this character. 

** Unanimity of voting —that will do nothing for us. Your ship 
cannot double Gape Horn by its excellent plans of voting. The ship 
to get around Gape Horn, will find a set of conditions already voted 
for and fixed by the ancient Elemental Powers, who are careless 
how you vote." 

Again. — 

"A certain people, once upon a time, clamorously voted 'Not 
He; Barabbas, not He ! ' Well ! they got Barabbas: and they got 
of course, such guidance as Barabbas could give them: and, of 
course, they stumbled ever downwards and devilwards in their 
stiff-necked way." 

His description of the possible future of the Amer- 
ican Republic is of this order as he says — 

" Cease to brag to me of A.merica— its model institutions and con- 
stitutions. America's battle is yet to fight. New spiritual Pythons, 
plenty of them, loom huge and hideous out of the twilight future. 
Brag not yet of our American cousins. What have they done? 
Doubled their population every few years ! " 

This is certainly figurative and on the rough-and- 
ready side. 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS. — CARLYLE, 493 

It is the same original Carlyle, talking as it suits 
him and aiming to hit. With all its ruggedness, it 
has power. So inclined is he to this departure from 
literal use that the figurative often takes the place 
of the real. Personifications become persons. Dry- 
asdust and Herr Teufelsdruckh live and have being. 
He dealt largely in Hyperbole, Interrogation, Antith- 
esis and Apostrophe, using figures in the line of 
boldness rather than beauty. In his essays, especially, 
his metaphors are more subdued and chaste. In such 
articles as those on Burns aud Richter, bis prose reads 
more like that of De Qnincey or Macaulay, while 
even in the historical writing?, the deviations from 
propriety are not marked. His contrast by figure in 
his Essay on Voltaire between the haughty Tamer- 
laine and the humble Johannes Faust; the contrast 
between the joy and the closing sadness of the life 
of Marie Antoinette; the metaphysical description 
of the most striking scenes and personages of the 
French R-^volation, are all in the line of high graphic 
Sv'ill. In the use of figure for purposes of embellish- 
)iient, he had many superiors. In their use for bold 
and blunt delineation, he had none. 

(5.) Caustic and Acute. 

Carlyle has been called "The Censor of his Age." 
He was so by self-appointment and was devoted to 
[lis work. He was fonder of nothing than of censor- 
ship as it applied to men, manners, institutions nnd 
policies. If the basis of this is said to be a profound 
Egoism, be it so. Carlyle did believe thoroughly in 
himself This was his weakness and his strength 



494 N ENGLISH PROSE. 

and it led him to the office of judgeship. He was 
*' notliing' if not critical," and as wit, when made an 
end in itself degenerates into buffoonery, criticism 
when pursued for the love of it and on the ground of 
personal infallibility, degenerates into cynicism and 
caustic irony. Carlyle's very humor was satirical. 
It was a "prickly sarcasm." It flayed and scorched 
the victim. It had but little of that humanity in it 
which marks the pleasantry of Lamb and Dickens. 
At this point, in his style, the author is the true suc- 
cessor of Dean Swift and the English representative 
of Voltaire. He had a thought to express and a fault 
to rebuke, and if the process was painful to the sub- 
ject of the rebuke, so much the worse for the subject. 

The reference, here, is to the main drift of Car- 
lyle's prose as ironical and humorous. He was not 
altogether devoid of tenderness as his Essay on 
Burns and his writings on human life, — evince. 

Even his humor is, at times, playful and light- 
hearted as in his thoughts on — The Tramp Orator 
— The World in Clothes and Tailors. 

In the main, liowever, he indulges in the cynical 
and derisive. He sees the ludicrous side of things 
as Swift saw them in Gulliver's Travels, or Butler, 
in Hudibras, or Pope, in The Dunciad, and deals 
with it in the same unmerciful way and with even 
stronger grasp. He loves invective and assumes at 
once the polemic attitude. While h ^ .-ays of Amer- 
ica *'that it would ill bese id ; n_y Ei.glishman to 
speak unkindly " of it, he adds — " They have begot- 
ten eighteen millions of the greatest hores ever seen 
in this world." 

The main explanation of this bitter element in 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE, 495 

Carlyle's prose, is his innate and ever deepening 
hatred of what he called " Shams, Unveracities and 
Phantasms." Whenever he thought of them or saw 
them, his soul was stirred as was Burke's in the 
view of Hastings' crimes in India. He had what he 
would call a righteous indignation against pretense 
and deemed it God's work to rebuke it. 

So prevalent was this in the world and so deep- 
rooted, that he thought it folly to attack it mildly. 
Innuendo and allusion must take the form of sarcasm, 
and wit must become scorn and vituperation. 

There is good and evil in this. It makes the au- 
thor's prose crisp, pungent and positive, while it also 
serves to keep it down to the lower level of personal 
reference and reproach. While it adds to that orig- 
inality and cogency that mark his prose, it also adds 
to that quality of ruggedness and crudeness which 
we have j^et to note. 

Whatever the subject he had in hand, whether 
history, criticism or essay, he was ever on the watch 
for the presence of that demon of imposture which 
he believed to be the worst spirit on the earth and 
which he was determined to oppose. Carlyle's prose, 
in this respect, takes its place among the satires. It 
reads as Junius and Aristophanes read. It is a pro- 
test throughout against imagined wrong and with 
all its faults is sincere and effective, 

CHARACTERISTIC DEFECTS. 

(1.) Unfinished. 

We use the word here in its figurative sense, as 
indicating want of grace and beauty. In no stand- 



496 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ard English prose is the absence of this more marked. 
There is no writer who so openly discarded all at- 
tempt at form. The main thing with him, and in 
fact, the only thing was the idea. That he must 
express at all hazards. If the form of it pleased 
others, w^ell; if not, equally well. It always pleased 
him for he had no choice. 

He would pass from the sublime to the grotesque 
with no thought of inconsistency. His rugged En- 
glish was not rugged to him for it conveyed his 
meaning. He would not concede that there was any 
such thing as grace or finish of style as elements of 
literary art. If told that his descriptions were often 
coarse and his figures crude and harsh, he would 
answer — Do they not express the idea? If so, they 
are in order and in taste. He was, in fine, a law unto 
himself here as everywhere — the same original and 
self-sufi&cing Carlyle. There are indications, at times, 
that Carlyle did not ignore literary art. In some of 
his best works, the utmost pains seem to have been 
taken. He urges authors to write slowly; to com- 
press much meaning in a small compass; to write 
prose rather than poetry; and he endorsed, by his 
own example, the value of care as to details. Still, 
art for art's sake, he despised, and naturally went to 
the extreme of gracelessness. His very originality 
and cogency were without finish. His words, sen- 
tences, figures and general style are devoid of 
neatness. 

The reader must look elsewhere for "The Ameni- 
ties of Literature." Milton, Johnson, Hooker, Bacon 
and Barke were deficient here, but not as Carlyle is. 
His prose is as unartistic and unsesthetic as it well 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 497 

can be and be as good as it is. In tins, Carl vie is at 
fault and must liiioself be judged and condemned. 
No standard writer can afford to decry literary taste 
and grace. It has a place in all true autliorsliip and 
will, in some way, avenge its neglect. Carlyle's 
prose has fundamental merits and will be read, but 
not by numbers of those who would be attracted to 
its pages were its external form such as that of 
Thomas De Quincey's. 

(2.) Irregular. 

This is, in some respects, the main error in the 
st^de of our author. Nor is the reference here, to 
that of quaintness and eccentricity, of which we 
spoke in connection with the quality of originality. 
It is an irregularity of style for wliich there is no 
just warrant and which, in so far as it is found, im- 
pairs both the clearness and the force of the writing. 
There are various ways in which this departure from 
established principles manifests itself 

It appears, first of all, logically. 

Allusion has been made to the fact that Carlyle 
was a thinker rather than a reason er. This state- 
ment applies at this point. His reflections were far 
safer than his mental processes and conclusions, He 
inclined to that form of argument which is found in 
mathematics, and as such, is based on axioms and is 
demonstrative. In the sphere of probable evidence, 
he was far weaker. 

The special manner in which this fault indicates 
itself in Carlyle's literary prose is, in the want of 
logical nexus — that orderly sequence of thought which 



498 ENGLISH PROSE. 

secures unity and symmetry and the best effect. 
Just here he failed where De Qaincey succeeded. 
Readers will note in much of his prose the frequent 
recurrence of abrupt transition —a certain looseness 
of adjustment of part to part. From early educa- 
tional life at Edinburgh, he had but little taste for 
logic. His mind revolted at what is called by the 
schools — analysis — so that he generally fails when he 
attempts to apply it. In such works as — Sartor, Past 
and Present and Latter Day Pamphlets, most of the 
themes discussed are mere hooks on which to hang 
the thought rather than germinal topics out of which 
the subject is gradually evolved. In the discussion 
itself he preferred the discursive and desultory meth- 
od to that of a sharply defined and progressive line 
of argument. In a word, he was irregular here rather 
than reg-'iilar. He failed to follow those pre-estab- 
lished met:ho(i=^ which the careful writer is bound to 
respect. And if it be said, that he gained much by 
this independent waywardness, in the line of freedom 
and side suggestion, it is also to be noted that he lost 
that most important element of style which may be 
called, logical, — the element of connection, sequence 
and climax. 

This irregularity is, also, grammatical. We refer 
here, mainly, to structure and syntactical relation. 
It would not he correct to say of Carlyle's prose 
as he says of Werner's, "It is contorted into end- 
less involutions and well-nigh inexplicable in its 
entanglements," but there is much, at this point, 
to which the impartial critic must take exception. 
It is difficult to see how Mr. Mmto can assert, on 
one page, as to his sentences " that they are ex- 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— C A RLYLE. 499 

trernely sitiiple in construction," and on another, 
"that they are faulty, in that they depart from the 
ordinary structure of written composition." He uses 
the incorrect loose sentence as freely as Macaulay 
uses the periodic or Dryden, the antithetical. His 
parentheses are frequent and often involved, while as 
to the ordinary distinctions supposed to exist among 
the different parts of speech, he takes but little ac- 
count. Often in reading Carlyle's prose, one is re- 
minded of the transitional English of Elizabethan 
days. His grammar seems to be unsettled, and he 
passes freely from one form to another as if all were 
alike in vogue. We note such peculiarities as the 
following: 

"He is to "know of a truth that being miserable he has been un- 
wise, /le." 

"The sum of it, visible in every market-place, fills one not with a 
comic feflin^." 

He use.^ such superlative forms as, predsest., pifi- 
fullest, iiicvitahlesi, fotalesf, and remarhahlest. Such 
exceptional usages as these are not to be referred to 
eccentricity as much as to positive violation of idiom 
and formation. In so far as they exist, they seem to 
carry the prose back to the Middle-English Period 
and detract, therefore, from its influence in modern 
times. 

Undoubtedly, something of error, here is due to 
Carlyle's proficiency in German and his fondness 
for it. He made no eflort to give precedence to the 
English when the two languages conflicted as to any 
particular usage. In speaking of the style of Teufels- 
druckh, he writes — "Of his sentences, perhaps not 
more than nine-tenths stand straight on their legs. 



500 ENGLISH PROSE. 

The remainder are buttressed up by props (of paren- 
ilieses) and dashes." This language is, in a sense, 
autobiographical. While in the author's prose, and 
i^ypecially in his essays and biographies, numerous 
examples may be found of faultless grammatical 
structure, error here, is far too frequent in a writer 
whose merits are so conspicuous. 

It is, however, when we come to study style verbal- 
ly, that Carlyle's irregularity is most apparent. Here 
the violation of precedent and principle amounts to a 
literary offense. There is much written at present 
on — The English of Carlyle. where the reference is to 
his diction. It may be said to be an open question 
and not a few are found who are eager to defend, 
at all hazards, oar author's phraseology. 

It is admitted that it is peculiar, often harsh and 
mixed and often so aside from usage as to be unin- 
telligible. Still, we are told, it is Carlylese and there- 
fore, admissible; that it manifests the man in his in- 
dividuality; that he cannot be expected to write 
English as Bunyan or as Swift did, or even as Dr. 
Johnson did. In a word, the originality is admitted 
but condoned on the ground of personal peculiarities. 
This principle is certainly unsafe as a general test, 
and in the case before us leads us often to justify 
what cannot be commended. The reference here, is 
not to the extent of his vocabulary. This was as 
wide as his reading and equal to that of any con- 
temporaneous writer. Especially in the description 
of character and in the sphere of technical terms, his 
verbal wealth was unbounded. We speak of the 
quality of his diction when we call it in many cases, 
outlandish and unmeaning. It is not that he always 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE, 501 

uses foreig'u words in preference to Saxon, for this is 
not the case; nor is it that he uses words which when 
used may seemed somewhat odd, but to which we be- 
come reconciled because of their final fitness and 
force. It is iu the use of terms obsolete and obsolescent 
that he seems to revel and which, if allowable, would 
not be the best. In such a sentence as this — " Turn 
away from their lacquered sumptuosities, their be- 
lauded sophistries, their serpent graciosities " — how- 
ever admissible the words may be, tiiey are not the 
best. 

Pages of- words might be culled from Carlyle for 
which no apology can be made save that they are his. 
A few examples will suffice : 



disimprisoned, vehiculatory, 

elsewhitlier, antecessors, 

astucity, raaleficent, 

to vilipend, . vestnral, 

dislikable, complected, 

dubiety, stertorious, 

fuigiously, misresults. 



Here is something more than personality of style. 
It is a species of verbal irregularity which is not 
venial. It tends to nullify the good inflaeuces of 
those high qualities to which attention has been 
called, and to make language according to Talley- 
rand, " the art of concealing thought." 

There is far too much of this logical, grammatical 
and verbal looseness in Carlyle. Even with his great 
individuality behind it, it has not escaped deserved 
rebuke. If the author had written when Bacon or 
Milton wrote or even at the time of Addison, more 



502 ENGLISH PROSE, 

excuse might have been offered, but an author liv- 
ing in the nineteenth century can scarcely be for- 
given for using the diction of the sixteenth or worse 
than that, for using a diction objectionable at any 
era. Carlyle is never weary of allusion to the sim- 
plicity of Goldsmith and Burns. He could have 
learned much from either of them in the line of 
verbal plainness. 

(3.) Mystical. 

Next to the feature of originality, this may be said 
to be the most salient characteristic of our author's 
style. It is, also, the most radical fault. It might be 
called mythical and the one for which Jeffrey is con- 
stantly reproving him. The reference here, is to a 
kind of haze or shadowiness hanging over the thought 
and expression. It is especially noticeable in those 
productions that are speculative but it is not confined 
to these. That long and valuable correspondence 
which he carried on with Emerson is full of it, as 
also, are his essays and even histories. At no point are 
Carlyle and Emerson more at one than here in this 
transcendental atmosphere looking at the partially 
revealed forms of truth and surmising the rest. In 
chapter tenth, of Sartor Resartus, the author speaks 
in suggestive language of his hero — " His grand 
peculiarity is, that with all this Decendentalism, 
he combines a Transcendentalism no less superla- 
tive." Such tendency to Mystification is every- 
where traceable. Nothing that he sees but has 
two meanings. "There is this old Platonic element 
visible throughout — something of the ' Sphinx' in it 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 503 

all." He contended for the principle in style that 
tlie meaning of an author should not be seen at once. 
In many cases, in his own prose, it is not seen at all. 

Tliough it would not be improper to call Carlyle 
an ethical writer, who can gather from his writings 
any well defined code, of ethics ? 

Though he is ever discoursing on government, 
social order and feasible public policies, who can 
reduce these suggestions to a practicable system? 
Emigration and education are the catch-words, but 
just what is meant is doubtful. In Chartism and 
similar pamphlets, it is difficult to find solid ground 
on which to stand. 

In fine, there is much here that is visionary and 
chimerical — a kind of weirdness that attracts and 
bewitches and that is all. Sometimes, the author 
reaches the sphere of rhapsody and all is fantastic 
and airy. 

Hence, the phrase and names so frequent in his 
prose, as — The Destinies, The Eternal Melodies, The 
Eternities, The Divine Silence, The Sphere Harmo- 
nies, The Necessities, The Eternal Forces. So far as 
this goes, it is unreal and illusorj^ and belongs much 
more to the region of poetry than to that of solid 
prose. 

Carlyle could not have corrected this had he wished 
or striven. It wae in him as, an elemental part of 
the man while his home "in the loveliest nook in 
Britain," and his strange career only intensified it. 

He was the "Seer of Chelsea." He "saw visions 
and dreamed dreams," and even when he v/rote on 
events transacting right before him, he looked at 
them from the heights above. 



504 ENGLISH PROSE. 

The result of this element as far as it had influence 
was to make it impossible for Carlyle to be an abso- 
lutely clear writer as he himself confesses: " Mystical 
in most cases will turn out to be merely synonymous 
with — not understood," 

That irregularity of which we have spoken would 
contribute to this obscurity, but mysticism still more 
so. In liis Life of Sterling he says, — '' I have heard 
Coleridge talk two stricken hours and communicate 
no meaning whatever." The remark is not inappli- 
cable to Carlyle. He often defies all attempt to un- 
derstand him and often compels the reader to unwil- 
ling study to determine the sense. In his Essay 
on German Literature, he refers to the two great 
faults with which the German authors have been 
charged — Bad Taste and Mysticism. The first charge 
he denies. The second, he admits and defends 
even though he defines Mystics to be " men who 
either know not clearly their own meaning, or at 
least, cannot put it forth in formulas whereby others 
may apprehend it.'* 

Here again, German influence deepened what was 
already in the man. 

It is necessary to add here, that this feature in 
Carlyle and his prose expressed itself, at times, in the 
morbid and despondent What a doleful tone pervades 
some of his work ! Li The French Ee volution and in 
Cromwell, this is apparent as, also, in his political 
papers, while in such works as are speculative this 
tone controls. This explains his devotion to the 
name and writings of Goethe. It is not strange that 
he translated Wilhelm Meister and reveled in such 
works as Faust and The Sorrows of Werther. They 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 505 

ministered directly to his mystical tendencies and on 
their morbid side. His very portraits are noted for 
this settled sadness. There is not a little of the pes- 
simistic in it all. The secret of the difficulty lay 
in the fact that while the great problem of human 
life and destiny was the one problem he aimed to 
solve, the method of its solution was totally wrong 
as he applied it and, thus, but added to the mental 
disquietude already existing. 

To this extent, the prose of Carlyle is not only 
obscure, it is unliealthful in its influence. Instead of 
that clear view of common life that marks the prose 
of Bacon, Addison and Burke there is a misty, half 
intelligible and sombre view which more befits the 
monastery than the world without. Carlyle has 
great merits, but at this point he is an unsafe guide 
in style. Less and not more of the visionary is what 
is needed. In the historical and literary progress of 
English Prose, that authorship will meet with great- 
est favor which is hopeful in tone and which may 
be understood at sight. 

In our study of Carlyle, one topic of interest re- 
mains to be noticed — we refer to — 

His Character as a Critic. 

There is room here for great diversity of view. 
There were elements both of mind and character in 
Carlyle which fitted him for successful critical work, 
while it cannot be denied that he also possessed char- 
acteristics which, as certainly, unfitted him for such 
work. 

As to his qualifications, it may be said that he wae 
a man who thought for himself on all subjects that 



506 ENGLISH PROSE. 

might come before him and to this extent would 
certainly pass judgment in the words of no other. 
Whatever his verdict was as to a man or work, it 
was his own. He was an independent critic as well 
as an independent writer. He had the courage to 
speak what he believed, and as far as he knew his 
own mind and motive, he decided always in the in- 
terest of truth. 

He possessed in rare measure a further qualification 
for this work in his character as a man of letters. As 
we have seen, he was an author by profession and by 
practice. Whatever the early tendencies of his life 
may have been in the direction of the law and the 
ministry or in that of educational work, he soon 
found that his tastes and talents were in the line of 
literature. To that he devoted himself with his char- 
acteristic zeal holding strictly to the view, that what- 
ever a man does he should do wholly. He magnified 
the work of authorship. He knew the trials and en- 
couragements of authors. His own experience had 
been varied enough to incline him fully to sympathize 
with those who made literature their life-calling. 
Still further, his range of reading was such as to 
acquaint him with the " best that had been thought 
and said." He was thoroughly versed in classical 
lore; was a proficient in German, and to some extent, 
in South European authorship ; knew the literary men 
and books of England as well as he knew his na- 
tive language, and was thus able to judge of any 
given production in the light of all that had been 
produced. 

In addition to all this it may be said that he seems 
to have had as a critic, right views in the main as to 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —CARLYLE. 507 

the laws, standards and methods of criticism. Some 
of these he states in connection with his critical 
opinions. In one of his ]\Iiscellanies he writes: 

"Criticism, it is sometimes thought, should be a cold business. 
We are not sure of this." 

Referring to the crude opinions passed on Faust 
and Wiiheim JMeister, he says : 

'* We have heard few English criticisms of such works, in which 
the first condition of an approach to accuracy was complied with — 
a transposition of the critic into the author's point of vision, a sur- 
vey of the author's means and objects, and a just trial of these by 
rules of universal application." 

Speaiving of the advanced state of literary criticism 
in Germany, he writes — 

"The grand question is not now a question concerning the 
qualities of diction, the coherence of metajDhors and the fitness of 
sentiments, but a question on the essence and pacaliar life of the 
poetry itself. The problem is not now to determine by what mech- 
anism Addison composed sentences and similitudes, but by what 
far finer and more mysterious mechanism Shakespeare organized his 
dramas and gave life and individuality to his Hamlet. Criticism 
stands like an interpreter between the inspired and the uninspired 
to clear our sense that it may discern the fine brightness of this ele- 
ment of beauty." 

Pages of such high teaching as this may be gath- 
ered from the prose of Carlyle. Fie utterly con- 
demned the artificial methods; of Pope and Blair; 
of Boileau and the Frenc'i school; and exalted into 
prominence the principle of the German critics who, 
though somewhat decrying elegance of finish, saw 
into the real essence of a work of art and exposed its 



508 ENGLISH PROSE. 

merits or demerits. From his Essay on German Lit- 
erature, it is safe to say that a full and philosophic 
theory of literary criticism might be deduced as he 
conceived it, verbally phrased it, and aimed to 
apply it. 

In so far as the theory and final aim of criticism 
are concerned, therefore, Carlyle's prose reveals the 
truth. The theory was philosophical and the aim 
was the highest good of English and European let- 
ters. If we inquire as to how Carlyle carried out his 
own views, the difficulty begins. Partially, at least, 
he succeeded in applying them. We are not speak- 
ing, now, of his strictly political productions or even 
of those where the historical element is lost in the 
political. The reference is to his purely literary 
judgment on authors and books. In this, he partially 
succeeded, as in his view of Coleridge, given in — 
The Life of Sterling; in his judgments on Burns, Vol- 
taire, Heyne, Kichter and Schiller, as given in his 
essays; in his general views on History, on Euro- 
pean Literature, and on German Literature in itself 
and as related to English ; in the main, in his decis- 
sions on Goethe, his place and work; and in his views 
of English writers, such as Goldsmith, and especially, 
Shakespeare. 

Special instances of his critical correctness may be 
given. His Essay on Burns is sympathic and discern- 
ing throughout. In the course of it, he remarks: 

"To the ill-starred Burns was given. the power of making man's 
life more nnerrable, but that of wisely guiding his own life was not 
given. The excellence of Bums is, his sincerity. In his greatness 
and his littleness, he is ever clear, simple and true." 

Again, — 



REPRESENTA TIVE WRITERS— CARL YLE. 509 

"Independently of the essential gift of poetic feeling, a certain 
rugged, sterling worth pervades whatever Burns has written. No 
poet is more graphic. Three lines, and we have a likeness." 

How aptly he hits the Frenchman right on the 
head when he says of Voltaire — 

"The chief quality is adroitness." 

Further, 

"There is one deficiency in Voltaire's original structure- -his 
inborn levity of nature, his entire want of earnestness. We find no 
heroism of character in him from first to last." 

He speaks of his expertness, facility, wit, in the 
shape of cynical ridicule; contrasts him in his de- 
ceiving brilliancy with the great and gifted Shake- 
speare of England, and is not content to leave him 
till he rebukes him for over having written on 
Christianity without the slightest practical know- 
ledge of its nature. 

On the whole, however, Carlyle's prose reveals the 
want of keen, clear, impartial and comprehensive 
power as a literary critic. There were reasons, also 
for this. Dyspepsia and poverty and misinterpreta- 
tion did ranch to embitter his nature and unfit him 
for ingenuous judgment of others. His want of ass- 
thetic taste increased the inability. He had not that 
full-orbed and sensitive eye which comes only 
through the medium of the artistic. This need is 
especially manifest in the sphere of poetry. 

That logical, grammatical and verbal irregularity 
of which we have spoken is a further ground, to 
which may be added that mystical element by reasoa 



510 ENGLISH PROSE. 

of which a kind of haziness enveloped all that he be- 
held. As already seen, he was without that analjtio 
power which is essential to the critic in his interpre- 
tation of authors. He must be able to dissect and to 
give a safe and fall diagnosis. Moreover, his indepen- 
dence so overreached itself as to make it difficult for 
him to carry out his theory and assume the stand- 
point of the author whom he was judging. He was 
full of notions peculiar to himself — originating and 
developing in his own brain. Everything must be 
viewed through them. An author was or was not 
successful as he conformed or failed to conform to 
these whims and schemes. Hence, Goethe was his 
favorite poet and Sir Walter Scott was not. The one 
was just visionary enough to suit him and the other 
had too much sober common sense. Hence, Coleridge 
was a favorite prose writer and Scott was not. 
Hence, Sartor Resartus was a favorite subject and 
evoked his best power. 

Hence, it is, that he is not a clear critic of style. 
He deals with men and things and events rather than 
with the exact subject matter of authors, and what- 
ever may be the theme he is soon adrift on some one 
of his specially attractive vagaries. In the German 
authors, as a class, he is led to overlook great defects 
in that they think somewhat as he thinks, while of 
Scott he can say nothing better than that he has " a 
general healthiness of mind." 

In a word, Carlyle's great lack as a critic may be 
expressed in one word — want of Objectivity. He was 
purely subjective and, hence, dogmatic, visionary, 
eccentric and ruled by prejudices. At this point, he 
falls far below. De Quincey and even Macaulay, while 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS.— CARLYLE. 511 

the later school of English criticism, as represented 
by Arnold, is seen to excel just where he failed. 

His bitterness towards some of his contemporariea 
as evinced in his published Reminiscences, is enough 
to confirm the statements here made. His references 
to Charles Lamb will no sooner be condoned by the 
English-speaking public than Voltaire's contemptu- 
ous slurs on Shakespeare. 

In the History of His Life in London, lately given by 
Mr. Froude, he speaks of the noted men of his time 
in the most contemptuous terms. 

Of Southey he writes, " A well-read, honest, limited 
man"; of Wordsworth, "Very loquacious, worth little 
now, intrinsically and extrinsically small"; of Sydney 
Smith, " Mass of fat and muscularity with no humor 
or even wit, seemingly without soul "; of Macaulay, 
" Of essentially irremediable common-place nature, 
all gone to tongue"; of Gladstone as, "Addle-pated 
nothingness, one of the contemptiblest men, incap- 
able of seeing any fact whatever"; and even of Emer- 
son to whom he owed so much he says, " Very exotic. 
Good of him I could get none. He came with the 
rake rather than the shovel." When he does deign 
to praise, as in the case of Webster and Dickens, it is 
so faint as to be worthless. This is more than bad 
criticism. It is bad blood and venom and but one of 
the many ways he had of exalting Thomas Carlyle at 
the expense of others. Such an egoist could not be a 
critic. 

All this was unfriendly to that dispassionate 
mood in which the censor should sit in judgment 
upon liis fellows. Though Carlyle was clear headed 
enough to establish a just theory of literary criticism, 



512 ENGLISH PROSE. 

he was not impartial enough to apply it, and En- 
glish Letters has received but little from him in this 
direction. 

His work in English Prose has been of service in 
other directions. As a body of prose it is instinct 
with intellectual and literary life. Original, sugges- 
tive, cogent, impassioned, graphic and incisive, it 
teaches all who read it to think freely and think pro- 
foundly; to speak their thought with the courage of 
their convictions and with terse compactness; to re- 
gard human life as the greatest of mysteries and pos- 
sibilities; to exalt ideas above things and circum- 
stances; and to address themselves to their ascer- 
tained mission with that " dreadful earnestness " that 
is born out of the deepest experiences and promises 
the grandest results. 

Whatever Carlyle is or is not, he is a represe.ntative 
writer of English Prose. Though as a standard for 
imitation, he is inferior to many of his predecessors 
and colleagues, he is, still, strictly representative, as 
much so, at least, as any one of the twelve authors 
whose style we have studied. 

In the language of Mr. Hutton — " No literary man 
in the nineteenth century is likely to stand out more 
distinct, to the centuries which will follow," He has 
done what few among men have done. He had more 
influence upon his age than his age had upon him, 
and for this alone deserves the most careful study. 
His very faults are historic and add to his wide- 
reaching fame. Despite the gravest violations of 
literary propriety, he is quoted as a model and leader. 
He took his own way despite of precedent, and what 
lie leaves is his .own. Outside of the region of prose 



REPRESENTATIVE WRITERS —CARLYLE. 513 

fiction, it may be said that no works of English Prose 
are better known at this moment among educated 
circles. No essays are read with keener avidity by 
young and old. Despite their mysticism and their 
" barbarous diction," they are read and this is one 
of the best of tests. 

Of the prose of Carlyle this much can be said — it 
has such merit tliat every literary student must be 
conversant with it. 

It is so ftiulty, that when the student reads it, it 
must be with judgment, caution, dissent and not 
infrequent protest. A few such writers are needed 
in every century to stimulate and emancipate, and 
but few, lest irregularity take the place of literary 
law. Carlyle was a Scotchman. English Prose will 
always need something of the Scotch element in it to 
give it tone and point and literary bluntness and 
Christian obstinacy. 

References and Authorities. 

Minto's Prose Manual. Conway's Carlyle. Carlyle 
(Eng. Men of Let.) Lowell's — My Study Windows. 
Froude's Carlyle. Essays by Morley, Martineau and 
Bayne. Norton's — Emerson and Carlyle. 



CONCLUSION. 

We have thus briefly surveyed the leading periods, 
and forms and some of the leading authors of our 
English Prose from Elizabeth to Victoria. 

In reviewing this historical development of three 
centuries of English Prose from Bacon to Carlyle, 
the first and deepest impression is that of Liierary 
Richness. 

We have noted but here and there a name of 
prominence among scores that might have been ad- 
duced, and it is a matter of mingled pride and sur- 
prise to fill up the list of English Prose Writers as 
illustrative of the various characteristic forms of 
prose. 

In History and Biograpry, there are such historic 
names as — Grote, Green, Raleigh, Boswell, Strickland, 
Hume, Clarendon, Gibbon, Hallam, Mill, Buckle, 
Turner, Alison, Lingard, Mahon, Warton, Craik, Col- 
lier, Tytler, Stanley, Palgrave, Knight, Southey, and 
Merivale. 

In Descriptive Prose and Prose Fiction are — 
Bnlwer, Edgeworth, Thackeray, Richardson, Bun- 
yan, Fielding, De Foe, Sterne, Austen, Porter, Reade, 
Disraeli, Kingsley, Bronte, Marryat, and Eliot. 



CONCLUSION. 515 

In Oratorical Prose are the names of — Barrow, 
Taylor, Hall, Fuller, Bolingbroke, South, Chatham 
and Chalmers. 

In Didactic, Critical and Philosophic Prose, are — 
Drjden, Bentham, Wordsworth, Whateley, Chilling- 
worth, Shaftesbury, Junius (Francis), Browne, Cow- 
ley, Temple, Adam Smith, Paley, Blackstone, Bentley, 
Warburton, Boyle, Locke, Cudworth, Butler, Hobbes, 
Harrington, Maurice, Miller, J. S. Mill, and Coleridge. 

In Miscellaneous Prose, the name is legion and in 
no department of our Letters is there a greater dis- 
play of solid wealth — Gilford, Hazlitt, S. Smith, Lan- 
dor, Forster, Brougham, Jeffrey, Drake, Thomas Ar- 
nold, Newman, Chesterfield, Collier, Goldsmith, Steele, 
Mackintosh, Disraeli, Arbuthnot, North, the brothers 
Hare, and Pattison. 

We have here an approximate list of authors of 
English Prose from the time of Bacon, exclusive of 
those noted writers still living and at work on 
English ground. 

It is perfectly safe to say that there is nothing 
like it for opulence and variety in any European or 
classical literature, while it would be presumptuous 
on the part of any critic to draw an exact boundary 
line between the first and second orders of English 
Prose. There are many writers that stand on the 
border line itself and seem to look each way. 

The list is rich iti any point of view from which it 
may be studied — intellectual, literary and ethical. To 
the lovers of literary art as verbally expressed it 
affords a large and inviting field of personal profit in 
the hours of mental leisure. 



616 ENGLISH PROSE. 

To the student of literature as an historical and 
philosophical development from crude beginnings to 
advanced maturity, it opens the widest area for safe 
research, analogy and induction. 

To the student of style, in its various laws, pro- 
cesses, qualities and forms, it becomes alike the all- 
sufficient guide and stimulus, while to intelligent 
thinkers and readers at large it presents in its spa- 
cious contents, at once the evidence of past literary 
power and the promise of what the Prose of English 
may yet become. 

There is nothing of which English-speaking peoples 
should more justly boast, while there may be said of 
our prose what the German Grimm was pleased to 
say of our language — " It may with good reason call 
itself universal and seems chosen like the people, to 
rule in future times in a still greater degree. In 
richness, sound reason and flexibility, no modern 
(prose) can be compared with it." 

If this be so, every educated man should be thor- 
oughly conversant with it in its best periods, forms 
and exponents. It is to the reproach and shame of 
multitudes of the intelligent and even of the lib- 
erally cultured that they are so little versed in its 
history, processes and leading names, and ignor- 
antly resort with avidity to foreign sources for that 
literary discipline that lies accessible at their own 
doors in the ample resources of their vernacular 
prose. 

Most of all should the statesman, the jurist, the 
journalist, the minister of the truth to men and all 
those who in any way by pen or voice seek to guide 
and govern their fellows, be so thoroughly acquainted 



CONCLUSION, 517 

with this rich department of our prose literature 
that when they write and speak they may do it in 
the h'ght of what has been done for them and with a 
determined purpose to maintain the honor of tlie past. 
Clear, forcible and elegant English has been a steady 
literary growth from the days of Elizabeth to those 
of Victoria. 

It has never been written more ably and acceptably 
than in the last twenty-five years. While English 
Poetry, even in the persons of its best exponents is 
perceptibly marking a decline of power and reveal- 
ing tendencies in the line of verbal mechanism and 
sensuous undertone all adrift from its earlier char- 
acter, English Prose is advancing with the advance 
of modern civilization and bids fair to keep abreast of 
it through the future. It is, in fact, one of the great 
exponents of such civilization. In all the primary 
forms of prose, this evidence of life is still visible — in 
history and biography, as represented by Froude and 
Freeman, Masson, Forster, Morley, Stubbs, Rawlin- 
eon, Leckey, and others; in description and fiction, 
as seen in Black, Collins, Macdonald, Muloch and 
others; in impassioned prose as seen in the best public 
aud Parliamentary addresses of Bright, Gladstone and 
others; in didactic and philosophic prose as seen in, 
Froude, Brooke, Procter, Symonds and Shairp; in 
criticism and miscellany as seen in, Matthew Arnold, 
Newman, ]\Iahafi'y, Leslie Stephen, Hughes, Euskin 
and an almost limitless list of worthy writers in the 
leading periodicals of the day. 

If in this wide variety and wealth of prose pro- 
duction, there is any one element of danger, it is in 
the rapid increase of the lighter forms of prose as 



618 ENGLISH PROSE. 

found in fiction, descriptive sketching, miscellaneous 
essays and journalism, somewhat at the possible ex- 
pense of the more intellectual and weighty forms — 
the historical and philosophic. This danger, how- 
ever, is more apparent than real. Even in the lighter 
species of prose (save that of fiction) work of a more 
substantial value is now done than hitherto was the 
case, while the great departments of narrative and 
didactic prose writing are developing with almost 
commensurate rapidity. 

There is no tendency in modern English more 
pronounced and more hopeful than the increasing 
tendency to the best forms of instructive prose as 
distinct from that which is merely entertaining and 
transient. 

This is especially true in that grand development of 
historical writing now going on before us in England 
as, also, on the Continent and in America. 

At no period of our prose has there been a larger 
number of able historians at work, or a more read- 
able and acceptable body of historical literature. 

Nor is this work confined to the province of civil 
or political history, but ranges through all the forms 
of narrative writings — the history of philosophy; of 
literature; of art, science, religion and the industries; 
of medicine, jurisprudence and Biblical doctrine; of 
society and the church ; of education and of journal- 
ism. Historical methods and aims were never so 
thoroughly studied as now. It is a kind of golden 
era of narrative prose which makes it one of special 
promise for prose in all its forms. 

Those cardinal principles of all style that are so 
richly found in history — clearness, simplicity, cor- 



coNCLUsioisr. 519 

rectness, definiteness, delineative skill and didactic 
aim — are the principles that are needed in every 
national literature and which will do much to pre- 
serve it pure and stable in the face of lower literary 
tendencies. 

Such is the drift of Modern English Prose on its 
intellectual side and such is its literary promise. In 
the rush and pressure of modern civilization, in that 
poetic decline and material advance which are so 
manifest, there may be some loss of aesthetic tone 
and finish in our prose. This can scarcely be 
avoided. We may expect less and less of Macaulay 
and more and more of Burke and Carlyle. There 
will be compensations for this loss of artistic grace in 
greater freedom, force and practical directness. The 
prose of the century will be in keeping with the charac- 
ter of the century, vivacious, pungent and informing, 
while at the incoming of a more poetic era, it may 
assume, at demand, a more poetic form and finish. 
As Bacon wrote for his age, so did Carlyle for his, 
and however the ages may differ, they are alike in 
this particular — that in each, great intellectual and 
material activity prevails and authors must write as 
men of the world. In the sixteenth and nineteenth 
centuries alike, English prose must needs be cogent 
and practical rather than aesthetic. The History of 
Literature, as all history, repeats itself and Modern 
English Prose is characteristically Baconian. Thus 
it is that the centuries are united. 

As to the Ethical Character of English Prose, little 
need be stated. It may be said to speak for itself 
It is scarcely necessary for such critics as Morley and 
Principal Shairp to call the special attention of read- 



520 ENGLISH PROSE. 

ers to this salient feature of our prose. It is so salient 
as to be everywhere apparent. 

With the one exception of Jonathan Swift, the 
authors who have come before us have been ethical 
throughout, — in thought, diction and general style. 

Though Hume and Gibbon, Buckle and Hobbes 
are ranked among skeptics, their pages are compar- 
atively pure in a literary point of view. Even in the 
department of prose fiction, where the danger is 
greater, the leading English prose novelists, with 
scarcely an exception, have been those whose teach- 
ings are morally sound. Such authors as Smollett 
and Aphia Behn are excluded from high place in 
the province of fiction, not only on intellectual, but 
on moral grounds. 

In this respect English Prose has a far brighter 
record than English Poetry. There are no such eras 
of moral decline and looseness as are found in the 
Dramatic Poetry of the Restoration and the later 
times of Byron and Shelley. The atmosphere is more 
bracing and the moral efi*ect more wholesome. 

There is no body of prose in any literature that 
will better stand the moral test. The ethical basis 
that was laid in our letters as far back as the days 
of First and Middle-English, in Alfred, Aelfric and 
Wyclif^s still the basis of our best literature. That 
great religious awakening that renovated the En- 
glish mind of the sixteenth century, deepened and 
broadened this moral basis so that it can, under Prov- 
idence, never be essentially disturbed. 

Those erratic tendencies, now at work in the line 
of a skeptical philosophy and a more indifferent view 
of human life, will not be able, materially, to affect 



CONCLUSION. 521 

it. The best English Prose extant is the prose of the 
English Bible as given in the versions of Wyclif, 
Tjndale, and King James. Right at the centre of our 
developing prose literature stands the Word of God 
in purest English form to guard and stimulate that 
development. English Prose is more than ethical. 
It is in its origin, history and promised unfoldings 
both Protestant and Biblical and quite apart from 
its high intellectual and literary character takes its 
place as one of the great moral agencies of modern 
times. 



INDEX. 

TOPICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 



A 

Abbott, E. A 54 

Addison, Joseph 288 

Biographical Sketch . . 288 
Preference for Prose , . 290 

Features of Style 291 

Literary Grace 291 

Plainness 294 

Wit and Humor 298 

Popularity 302 

Ethical Quality 304 

His Critical Ability. ... 305 

Prose Works 288 

His Poetry 290 

Advancemeni of Learning, Bsx- 

con's 215 

Aelfric Bata 18 

Aclfric's Prose 18 

Ainger, Alfred 374, 375 

Alcuin 18 

Alfred's Prose 15, 17 

Ancren Riwlo 28 

Anglo-Latin 211 

Anglo-Norman Writers 27 

Annals 128 

Apothegms, Bacon's 217 

Aquinas, Thomas 241 

Arabian Influence 41 

Arnold, Matthew. .194, 385, 

421, 427 

Ascham, Roger 38 

Augustan Prose 80, 100 

Augustine, Saint 241, 408 

Autobiography 130 



B 

Bacon, Roger 27 

Bacon, Francis 211 

Biographical Sketch.. 211 
Use of Latin .... .... 211 

Prose Works in English 214 

Mei-its of Style 217 

Concentration 217 

Analytical Clearness . . 219 

Incisiveness 219 

Strength 222 

Imagination 224 

Versatility 226 

Defects of Style 227 

Bancroft, George 133 

Bede 17, 21, 27 

Bentley, Richard ^. 77 

Berkeley, Bishop 274 

Berners, Lord 37 

Biography 129 

Remarks on ' . 130 

Modern Prominence of 131 
Biography and Author- 
ship 132 

Bishop's Bible 53 

Blackstone, Sir William . . . 113 

Boethius 16 

Boswell, James 315, 317 

Brewer, Prof. 293 

Bronte, Charlotte 467 

Browne, Sir Thomas . . 312, 408 

Brydges, Sir Egerton 262 

Buckle, H. Thomas 63 

Bulwer Lytton 151, 152 



524 



INDEX. 



Burke, Eclmnnd 334 

Biographical Sketcli . . 334 

Views as to Kaiik 334 

Prose Writings 336 

Conditions of Style. ... 339 

Characteristics of Style 342 

Burton, Robert 263 



Capitularies, The 16 

Carlyle, Thomas 479 

Biographical Sketch . . 479 
Writings, Prose.. 479,480 

Merits of Style 480 

Defects of Style 495 

Character as a Critic . . 505 
Examples of Prose 482, 

484 507 

Caxton, V/illiam ... 29, 30, 34 

Chalmers, Thomas 170 

Chaucer 233 

Chronicle, The 16 

Chronicles 128 

Coleridge, S. T. . . 108, 366, 504 

Cowley, A 36, 74, 90 

Craik, Prof. 347 

Cudworth, Ralph 75 

D 

De Foe, Daniel ... .93, 103, 182 

De Quincey, Thomas 417 

Biographical Sketch . . 417 
Classes of Essays .... 418 
Merits of Style. . . 419-435 
Defects of Style . . 437-445 

Dickens, Charles 443 

Biographical Sketch . . 443 

Prose Works 446 

Merits of Style 449 

Defects of Style 467 

Dictionar}'-, English 331 

Disraeli, laaac. 39, 87, 184, 291 
Donne, Bishop 56 



Drake, Nathan 188 j 

Drayton, Michael. . . , ... 140 \ 
Dryden, John . . . 72, 78, 87, 92 
Dunlop 151 

E 

Edwards, Jonathan 170 \ 

Eliot, George .... 154, 377, 471 \ 
Elizabeth, Queen .,.,.., 47, 52 ^ 

Elyot, Sir Thomas 37 

Emerson, R. W 481, 502 1 

Erskine, Thomas 167 ' 

Essays and Reviews 192 \ 

Essays on the Sublime, \ 

Burke's 337, 349 j 

Euphuism 55, 299 j 

I 

P I 

Fabyan, Robert 37 ! 

Field, James T... 130 j 

First-English Prose ... 15, 520 ■ 
Prominent Centres ... 15 I 

Prominent Writers 15 s 

. \ 
G \ 

German Influence 107 

Gibbon, Edward 63, 104 

Goethe 108, 153, 484, 486 

Gregory's Pastoral Care 17 

Green, John Richard ... . . 141 
Guizot. . . , 174 

H 

Hallam, H. . . . . . 50, 67, 84, 133 

Hall, Edward 37 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel 160 

Hazlitt, W . 49 

Historical Transitions 67 

History 133 

Relations of 139 

Reading of 140 

Elements of Interest. . 141 

Hobbes, Thomas 78 



INDEX, 



525 



Hooker, Kichard 231 

Biography 231 

Authorship 231 

Merits of Style 234 

Faults 239 

Examples of Prose. 243, 244 

Howells, W. D 197 

Hugo, Victor 160, 490 

Hume, David 114, 133 



Italian Influence ... 57, 73, 107 



James, G. P. R 152 

Johnson, Samuel 310 

Biography 310 

Writiugs 310 

Features of Style 311 

Journalism 197 

Junius, Letters of 361 



Kant, Immauuel 114 

Kingsley, Charles.... 152, 462 
Knox, John 258 



Lamb, Charles 363 

Biography 363 

Prose Works 363 

Defects of Style 364 

Merits of Style 369 

Critical Ability 380 

Lanier, Sidney 154, 158 

Latimer, Hugh 36 

Lecvrning, Advancement q/', Ba- 
con's 215 

Leland, John 37 

Letters 194 

Lewes, G. H 456 

Lord, John 136 

Luther, Martin 259 



M 

Macaulay, Lord 387 

Biographical Sketch . . 387 

Prose Works 387 

Popular Estimate of his 

Style 388 

Analysis of his Style . . . 390 

Defects of Prose 408 

March's Estimate of his 

Diction 392 

Examples 402, 403 

His Theory of Style 408 

Malor}', Thomas 35 

Mandeville's Prose 32 

Massey, Gerald 458 

Masson, David . . .101, 102, 130 

McMaster, John Bach 141 

Memories 128, 129 

Middle-English Prose.. 26, 520 

Miller, Hugh 197 

Milton, John 24G 

Biographical Sketch . . . 246 
Periods of his Writ- 
ings 247 

Prose Works in Eng- 

h'sh 249 

His Pamphlets 249 

Examples of his Prose 

Style 261, 262 

Minto, William. 36, 101, 441, 484 

Moir, David M 45 

More, Thomas 36 

Morley, Henry 131, 350 

Morris, Richard. 131 

Motley, J. L 136 

N 

New Atlantis, Bacon's 219 

Norman Conquest 26 

Norman-French 27 

Norton, Prof. 481 

Novel, Classes of 151 

Novum Organum, B icon's . 219 



526 



INDEX. 



Opium Eater, De Quincey's 430 

Orosins 16 

Oxford University, 421 



Paston Letters 35 

Pattison, Mark 252, 258 

Pecock, Reginald 34 

Periods, Prose 43 

Classification of 43 

General Inferences as 

to 116-121 

Philological English ... .95, 96 

Plegimund 16 

Poetical Prose 146 

Poetry, 194 

Polity, Hooker's 231 238 

Prescott, W. H 136, 379 

Prose Fiction 148 

Protestant, English 63 

B 
Raleigh, Sir Waiter . . .228, 490 
RamUer, Johnson's. . .327, 329 

Rawley 216, 223 

Revival of Classics 56 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua .... 329 

Richelieu 71 

Richness of English Prose . 514 
In History and Biogra- 
phy 514 

In Descriptive and Fic- 
tion 514 

In Oratorical Literature 515 

In Criticism 515 

In Miscellany 515 

Rufus, 'William 344 

Ruskin, John 147, 244 

S 

Saintsbury 89, 168 

Savage, Richard 83 



SchiUer lOg 

Schlegel, A. W 176 

Scott, Sir Walter 271 

Shakespeare, 107, 43, 227, 

275 422 

Sir Walter Raleigh. . . . 228, 490 

Spedding 215 

Spencer, Herbert 126 

Spenser, Edmund 233 

Stephen, Leslie 285 

Sterne, Lawrence ; . 156 

Swift, Jonathan 265 

His Prose Works .... 265 

Faults of Style 269 

Features of Merit 272 

Sydney, Sir Philip 55, 156 



Taine 63, 297, 312 

Talfourd, T. N 369 

Ten Brink 1 45 

Thackeray, W. M 93, 152 

Tories" 68, 86 

Travels and Tales 195 

Trench, Archbishop 253 

Trevisa, John 33 

Tyler, Prof 59 

Tyndale, William 37 



Victorian Prose 514 

Voltaire 327, 507 

W 

Wallenstein 52 

Walton Isaac 64, 377, 385 

Ward, A. W 466 

Warner, 0. D 131 

Whigs 86, 535 

Whipple, Edwin ..192, 235 239 

Wyclif, John 33 

William of Orange 76 

WilHam Rufus 344 



INDEX. 



527 



William Tyndale 37 

Wilson's Art of Dis- 
course 51 

Wisdom of the Ancients, Ba- 
con's 225 

Wordsworth, William .296, 303 

Writers, Prose , 20-1 

Classification of 204 

Explanatory State- 



Writers, Prose. — Continued. 

Eeprosentative Names. 210 
Wy Cher ley, William 74 



Yarrow 15 

Young, Edward 85, 91 



ments 



207 Zola, Emile 157 



IMPORTANT EPUCATJOMAL WORK, 

The Principles of Written Discourse. 

ByProf.T; W.HUNT. l2mo, cloth, 2cl edition. Net, $1.00* 
NOTICES. 

" Professor Hunt writes concisely, employs a clear terminology, and 
condenses much material in a little space. We do notretali any volume 
in the department of rhetoric and styJe that contains more information 
in a small compass. It is well adapted tor collegiate instruction, and 
we hope it may be widely adopted."— Kev. Pk(jI;'. fciHEDD in The Fresby- 
tenan Review. 

" Admirably adapted to awaken inquiry as well as to afford instruc- 
tion, and to indicate to the aspiring- writer the best methods by which 
his thinking- may be Liiade the most lucid and telling- in its outward 
forms."— i-ieralci and rrcshyter. 

" It is an admirable text-book, and its careful use by young writers 
would cure a thousand defects found in ordinary wiitiug:."— liostoji 
Daily AdverWer. 

" It is a brief but thorough-g-oing and invigorating, because vigorous, 
treatise. The rhetorical qualities of the volume are as admirable as 
the profound view which he takes of the snb^cct."~FTCiibytcrian. 

"The student who masters this book will know thoroughly what 
discourse, in its deepest significance, means; what are its laws; what is 
its fundamental method ; what is its true aim."— Rev. Dr. Jno. De Witt 
in Herald and Presbyter. 

"In order to acquire proficiency in public discourse the principles 
it lays down and enforces should be thoroughly understood. AThileit 
is systematized for use in the class-room, it aims at advanced rhetorical 
teaching, and may be studied with advantage by all scholars and public 
writei-s and speakers. "—CT^r-istiarz Intelligencer. 

"Prof. Hunt has recast the materials common to the standard 
treatises, wrought in with these the results of his study and retiection, 
guided by his experience as a teacher of the artandpractic , of rhetoric, 
constructing the' whole into a system from bis own point of view. And 
it is from the latter we discern the peculiar excellence of his work. 
* * Allowing his personal interest in the author and the volume, he 
(the writer) is conscious of no partiality in commending the book to the 
attention of teachers and students, and to writers and speakers. He 
is confident that a careful study of it will be rewarding even to those 
who have been well taught and have learned much by experience."— 
Rsv. Joseph T. Duryea, D.D., in Andover Review. 

"The forms and laws of written discourse are fully described and 
aptly illustrated, in a suggestive and logical manner, making it at once a 
valuable aid to the comprehension of the science, and a helpful guide to 
the practice of the art of discourse. I cannot doubt that the book will 
be esteemed both in the class room and in the private study."— [Extract 
fr )m letter from Prof. Henry L. Chapman, of Bowdoin College.] 

"A gljince only is needed to see that it is an able and scholarly 
treatment of the subject." -[Extract from letter from Prof. T. Wuitinq 
Bancroft, of Brown University.] 

"It is an admirable work. Its method is natural, progressive and 
attractive. The style is clear and forcible ; the examples are well 
cho.sen, and the general presentation of the subject is as valuable for 
what it suggests as for what it explains."— [Extract from letter from 
Prof. Henry A. Finck, of Hamilton College.] 

"The book seems to cover the whole field of discourse, with great 
clearness of statement. The references to the literature of the subject 
are copious: indeed, he presents in a condensed form what one must 
usually gather for oneself from a multitude of sources. * * Prof. 
Hunt's treati>e is well adapted for class-room work."— [Extract from 
letter from Prof. Bliss Perry, of Williams College.] 

12mo, Cloth. 373 pp. Net, Sl.OO. 
Copies for c.raniination sent, poaiagc paid, on receipt of 7S cents. 

A. C, ARMSTRONG & SON, - New York. 



WHITE'S STUDENT'S MYTHOLOGY. 

COMPENDIUM OF GKEEIC, ROMAN, EGYPTIAN, ASSYRIAN, PERSIAN, HINDOO, CHINESE, THIBETAN, SCAN* 

DINAVIAN, CELTIC, AZTEC AND PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGIES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH' STANDARD 

AUTHORITIES. ARRANGED FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES. 

BY C. A. WHITE, 

Author of " White's Classical Literature," Etc. 



The Student's Mythology is a practical work, prepared by an experienced 
teacher, and designed for pupils v/ho have not yet entered, or who, like the greater 
number of those attending our schools and academies, are not likely to enter upon a 
regular classical course. 

Great care has been taken to avoid all taint of pagan corruption of a nature to 
ofTend delicacy, while enough information is given to insure a clear understanding 
of all allusions to mythology met with in ordinary readings. 

It is an admirably arranged text-book on a subject of fascinating interest,— a text-book, and a 
good deal more : for while it has the form of question and answer, it gives in simple and felicitous 
phrase the substance of those charming, dreamy stories subtly woven of half-serious and half-frohc 
fancy around some slender spires of forgotten fact, which cobwebbed the morning of the world. . . 
It gives, in the briefest compass, all that one needs to know of them in order to understand tlie frequent 
allusions to them in modern as well as ancient literature, and is more portable and available than 
any dictionary that we know of. It gives an account, also, of poets of classic fable, with the heroes 
celebrated by them, the sybils, oracles, classic games, and the Greek drama, withbrief notices of the 
myths of other nations, and an account of the classic authors to whom reference is made. 

Nev/- edition now ready. A handsome i2mo volume, cloth, $1.25. 
Copies sent, postage paid, for examination, for 75 cejits. 



CONINGTON'S ^NEID. 



The iENEiD of Virgil. 

Translated into English Verse (Scott's Ballad Metre). 

By JOHN CONINGTON, M.A., 

Late Professor in the University 0/ Oxford. 

An elegant edition, in large, clear type, on toned paper, i vol., crown 8vo, 506 
pages. List price, $1.50. 

Copies sent, postage paid^ for examination, for %i.jo. 



"This version is unique In its metre, that of Scott's ballads being employed, which imparts a 
wonderful life and vivacitv, and will introduce the work to a class of readers by whom it has been 
heretofore overlooked. The London Examiner characterizes it as ' the very lightest, freshest and 
yet most accurate metrical translation of Virgil that has been added to our literature ; ihe^Ai/ie- 
n<pum says tbat ' besides being a faithful copy of the original, it has all the freshness, life, and beauuy 
of genuine poetry ' : the Saturday Kevieiv, ' That among the many good translations, there has been 
none more true to the spirit and letter of the original author than this' ; and the IVestmtnscer Kez'zezv 
styles it * eminently graceful and scholarlike.' . •■ mv. -u - i 

"After such commendations from such sources, little more need be said. The mechanical execu- 
tion is very rich and attractive, and reflects credit on the house that publishes it. — iV«y yorM 
Evening FosU 



Armstrong's Primer of United States History. 

{TENTH EDITION.) 

SIX DOUBLE-PAGE COLORED MAPS FROM ORIGINAL 

DRAWINGS. LIST PRICE, 50 CENTS. 

(COriES FOR EXAMINATION SENT POST-PAID FOR 35 CENTS.) 



President Thomas Hunter, of the New York City Normal College writes : 

"Having carefully examined Armstrong's Primer of Umitf.d States History, I consider 
it quite eciual to a similar class of books recently published in Kn;<!and. 'J'he style is clear and 
simple, the prominent and important facts concisely stated anil a mass of useless defa:! wisely 
omitted. As a text-book for beginners it is admirable, and as a liaiid-book in connection with a 
larger work, for older students it will be found uivakuiblc." 
« 

" A model historical primer, full in its statements, discriminating in its selection of events, 
clear and direct m its style, and comprehensive in its general outline of American affairs. The 
value of such a book is apparent at a glance. Of large histories of the United States there is no 
lack, but of shorter histories there is great need. A work of this character, thoroughly trustworthy 
in its statements, is of aimo^^t equal importance to the young student and to the general reader. It 
represents an amount of work of which its brief pages give no adequate impression. To condense, 
and yet to omit nothing essential to the complete statement of events, requires the fullest command 
of the subject and the most intelligent understanding of the mutual relations of all the facts involved. 
The writer of this primer was well qualified ior his task." 



SuPLEE's Trench on Words. 

BY RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH, D.D. 

FROM THE LATEST REVISED EDITION. WITH AN EXHAUSTIVE ANALYSIS, 

ADDITIONAL WORDS FOR ILLUSTRATlOxN, AND 

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATIONS. 

By PROF. THOMAS D. SUPLEE. 



1. A complete and exhaustive analysis of the revised text has been added. 

2. A set of questions has been prepared, designed not only to call forth the 
facts stated by the author, but also to follow up lines of thouglit suggested by him. 

3. At the end of each lecture a list of words has been added, illustrating its 
various topics, and intended to encourage original research on the part of the pupil. 

The Natio7tal and Neiu England Jotirnal of Educaiion says : "The editor, in common with 
other teachers, felt the need of making this work more practical as a text-book for schools. 1 he 
indexical outline of the lecture is very valuable, on account of its fullness ; this feature alone doubles 
the original value of the work. The blackboard exercises at the close of each lecture have been 
prepared with great care, and will be found extremely practical in the hands of an intelligent 
teacher. The questions on the chapters will be valuable tests of the pupils' knowledge, and the 
additional words for illustration are intended to lead to original thought and investigation. The 
editor shows an enthusiastic love for the study of words, and h.as performed a work for American 
teachers and students for which they should be profoundly grateful." 

12mo, Cloth, 400 Pages, *$1.00. 
Copies for examination sent, postage paid, oa receipt of 75 cts. 



CHOICE STA^DA^O WORKS. 

■ — — — — I* 

A NEW AED HANDSOME LIBRAEY EDITION 

OF 

IVIILIVIAN'S C01V1PLETE WORKS, 

Wti^k Table of Contents and Full Indexes^ 

IN 8 VOLS., CROWN 8V0, CLOTH. 

PHICE, $12.00 PER SET. (Beducedfrom $24.50, 

(Bound in Half Calf ex'ra, S 3^.00 fer cet.) 

This Edition of IMilman's Works, Thoroughly 
Revised and Corrected, Comprises 

The History of the Jews, 2 Vols, 

The History of Christianity, 2 Vols. 

History of Latin Christianlt?, 4 Vols. 

Dr. Milman has won lasting popularity as a liisto;.-r;- ''^v his throe 
great works, History of the Jews, History ot CHRisriAi\; :^ /, and 
History of Latin Christianity. These works link on to each 
other, and bring the narrative down from the beginning of all history to 
the middle period of the modern era. They are the work of the scholar, 
a conscientious student, and a Christian philosopher. Dr. Milman 
prepared this ncv/ edition so as to give it the benefit of the results of 
more recent research. In the notes, and in detached appendices to the 
chaptei-s, a variety of veiy important questions are critically discussed. 

The author is noted for his calm and rigid impartiality, his fearless 
exposure cf the bad and appreciation of the good, both in institutions 
and men, and his aim throughout, to utter the truth always in charity. 
The best authorities on all events narrated have been studiously sifted 
and their results given in a style remarkable for its clearness, force and 
animation. 



MILWIAM'S V/ORKS HAVE TAKEN THEIR PLACE AMONG 
THE APPROVED CLASStCS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The 
general accuracy of h;3 statcmentSj the canclcr oi his criticisms and 
the breadth of his charity arc evei-ywhero apparsnt in his wntings. 
His search at all times seems to have been foir truth, and that which 
he finds he states with simple clearness and with foariass horsesty. 
HIS WORKS ARE IN THEIR DEPARTIVIENT OF HISTORY AS 
VALUABLE AS THE VOLUMES OF G BSON ARE IN SFXULAR 
HISTORY. THEY DESERVE A PLACE IN EVERY LIBRARY IN 
THE LAND. THIS NEW EDITION, in 8 vols., contains Ai^.! AVERAGE 
OF OVER 900 PACES per volume. PRICE, $12.00 PER SET. 
(Formerly published in !4 vols, at $24.50 ) 

Sent on receipt of pricey charges prepaid^ by 



/v 



CHOICE STANDARD WOStKS. 

THE MOST ELEGANT EDITION PUBLISHED 

OP 

CHAEIES UIB'S COiPLElE fOlS, 

Including ELIA and ELIANA (the last containing the hitherto 

uncollected writings of Charles Lamb), corrected and 

revised, with a sketch of his life by Sir Thomas 

Noon Talfourd, and a fine Portrait on Steel. 

q Vols., Cr. 8vo, Clo. Price, 83-75 per set. (Reduced from $7.50.) 

(Bou7id i}i Hal/ Calf e.xt7-a, ^j per vol.) 

With a volume of Letters and Essays collected for this edition by the 
industty of, and arranged -with much taste and skill by, J. E. BABSON^ 
Esq., of Boston y *' who literally knows Laj?ib by heart." 

In Mr. Babson's preface to this additional volume, he says: 
" Other v/riters may have more readers, but none have so many true, 
hearty, enthusiastic admirers as he. * * * With all lovers and ap- 
preciators of true Vvrit, genuine humor, fine fancy, beautiful imagination 
and exquisite pathos, he is a prodigious favorfte. Indeed, there is some- 
thing — a nameless, indescribable charm — about this author's productions 
which captivates and cnravishes his readers, and though Lamb found 
many admiring readers in his lifetime, since his death his fame and pop- 
ularity have increased greatly. Then he was generally looked upon as 
a mere eccentric — a person of more quaintness than humor, of more od- 
dity than genius. Now he is acknowledged to be a most beautiful and 
original genius — one of the ' fixed stars of the literary system ' — whose 
light will never pale or grov/ dim, and whose peculiar brightness and 
beauty v/ill long be the wonder and delight of many. * * * For 
years I have been hopefully and patiently waiting for somebody to col- 
lect these scattered and all but forgotten articles of Lamb's. * * * 
Without doubt, all genuine admirers, all true lovers of the gentle, genial, 
delightful * Elia,' to whom almost every word of their favorite author's 
inditing is * fa-rsed with pleasatcnce ,^ will be mightily pleased with these 
productions of his inimitable pen, NOW first collected together." 

A3 this "SUPERB^EDifrCN" cf LAP/IB'S WORKS, in 3 Vols., 
AVERAGING NEARLY SCO PAGES IN EACH VOLUME, is sold at the 
EXCEEDINGLY LOW PRICE OF S3. 75 PER SET (formerly pub- 
lished in 5 Vols, at S7.50), the Publishers confidently believe IT 
WILL COMMEND ITSELF TO ALL FOR PERSONAL USE AND 
FOR LIBRARIES. 

Sent on receipt of price, charges prepaid, by 

A, C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 714 Broadway, New York. 



eHOICE STANDARD W©RICS. 
NEW (ILLUSTRATED) EDITIOf^ OF 



Eigar iUaii Foe's Goi 




WITH LIFE and an Introduction on the Genius of Poe. By 

RICHARD HENRY STODDARD. Illustrated with a 

New Portrait on Steel (the latest taken from life). 

Etchings from original designs — fac-similes — 

numerous autographs, etc. Printed from New 

Plates, large type, on Paper made 

specially for this edition. 



In 6 Vols., Crown 8vo, Neatly Bound, Cloth, Gilt Top. 
Price, $9.00 (in a box). Also, in Elegant Half Calf Bindings. 



With {Full-page) Etchings by Gifford, Church, Plait, Fennell, Van- 
denhojf, and other artists, with fac-similes of the first draft of " The 
Bells," and a number of facsimile letters, all printed in the best possible 
manner. 

"This edition is the completest and most competently edited one 
ever published, and one which leaves nothing to be desired as a pre- 
sentation of all that is worth preserving in Poe's writings, in the form 
and under the arrangement most to be desired — every lover of literature 
• has reason to be glad of its publication, no pains have been spared that 
could in any way contribute to make this edition a satisfactory one, and 
it is that in an eminent degree." — New York Com??zercial. 

New York Christian Union— '^ This edition of Poe's Works is not 
only the most perfect one that has yet been issued, but it is so good that 
It might well serve as the permanent form in which Poe's Works should 
be given to his countrymen. " 



"POE'S writings are as clear and sharp and sustained as the finest 
sculpture. They combine HAWTHORNE and DE FOE, the lawyer 
and the mystic ;- the wild fantasies of the opium-eater, and the calm, 
penetrative power of THACKERAY. They, therefore, fascinate alike 
the Dreamer and the Coolest Man of Affairs." 



Sent on receipt of price ^ charges prepaid, by 

A. C. Armstrong & Son, 714 Broadway, New York. 



CHOICE! STAE'^DA^D WORi<S. 
A NEW EDITION OF 

THE HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES. 

JP^.ID. G00-1S70. 
LV EIGHT PARTS, WITH AN INDEX OF 47 FACES. 

By JOSEPH FRANCOIS MICHAUD. 

And a Preface and Supplementary Chapter by Hamilton W. Mabie. 
3 vols., crown 8vo, Cloth. $3.75. 

(Bound in Half Calf extra^ ^3 per vol. J 
•*The ability, diligence and faithfulness with which MichaUB 
has executed his great task are undisputed, and it is to his well-filled 
volumes that all must resort for copious and authentic facts and luminour 
views respecting this most romantic and wonderful period in the annals 
of the world." 

This work has long been out of print, and its republication is oppor« 
tune. It narrates very fully and in a picturesque and interesting manner, 
the most striking episode in European history, and will add an invalu- 
able work to the historical literature v^^hich has recently been put into the 
hands of the reading public in editions combining sound scholarship 
and reasonable prices. Of the first excellence as an authority, full of 
romantic incident, graphic in style, this new edition of that which is by 
universal consent 

THE STANDARD HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES, 

will have equal value for the student and general reader. 



mVEMSIDE EDITION OF 

MACAULAY'S ESSAYS, 

Critical, Historical and Miscellaneous. With a Biographical and 

Critical Introduction from the well-known pen of Mr. E. P. 

Whipple, 3 vols., crown 8vo, Cloth, 3,000 pages. 

With a fine Portrait on Steel. Price. $3.75. 

(Bound in Half Calf extra, $3 per vol.) 
In this edition the essays have been arranged in chronological order, 
so that their perusal affords, so to speak, a complete biographical portrait- 
ure of tlie brilliant author's mind. It contains the pure text of the author 
and the exact punctuation, orthography, etc., of the English editions. 

A very full index (55 pages) has been specially prepared for this 
edition. In this respect it is superior to the English editions, and wholly 
mlike any other American edition. 

Seitt en j-eceipt of price, charges prepaid^ by 



NEW AND REVISED EDITION 

OF 

HALLAM'S COMPLETE WORKS, 

With New Table of Contents and Indexes, 

IN SIX VOLS., CROWN, 8V0, CLOTH. 

PRICE, $7.50 PER SET. (Reduced from $17.50J 

(Bound in HpJ/ Calf extra, $3 per vol.) 



This Unabridged Edition of I:La.llam's Works Comprises 

The Constitutional History of England, 2 Vols- 
The Middle Ages, THa State of Europe During me liiflle Ages, 2 Vols. 
Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 2 Vols* 

Reprinted from the Last London Edition, Revised 
AND Corrected by the Author. 



Macaulay, in his famous estimate of Hallam, says : '* Mr. Hallarai 
is, on the whole, far better qualified than any other writer of our time 
for the office which he has undertaken. He has great industry and great 
acuteness. PI is knowledge is extensive, various, and profound. His mind 
is equally distinguished by the amplitude of its grasp, and by the delicacy 
of its tact. His speculations have none of that vagueness which is the 
common fault of political philosophy. On the contrary, they are 
strikingly practical, and teach us not only the general rule, but the mode 
of applying it to solve particular cases. . . . Mr. Hallam's 
vork is eminently judicial. Its whole spirit is that of the Bench, not 
that of the Bar. He sums up with a calm, steady impartiality, turning 
neither to the right nor to the left, glossing over nothing, exaggerating 
nothing, while the advocates on both sides arc alternately biting their lips 
to hear their conflicting misstatements and sophism exposed.'* 



This "STANDARD EDITION" of HALLAM'S WORKS, 
in 6 Vols.. AVERAGES NEARLY 800 PAGES IN EACH 
VOL., and is sold at $7.50 PER SET (formerly published 
in 10 Vols, at $17.50.) 

Sent on receipt of p7'icey charges prepaid y by 
A- C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 714 Broadway, New York. 



L&Fe-23 



■:^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





013 976 282 4 



%i 



|?IK. 



